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A"Y" Girl Overseas 



Extrads from letters written to her 

parents from Europe 

by 

ADA ALICE TUTTLE 

Y. M. C. A. Worker 

From the Signing of the Armistice to 

the End of the Following 

Summer 



ARRANGED AND SUMMARIZED BY H. M. T. 



These letters give a most vivid picture of the condi- 
tions under which the work was carried on — sometimes 
in palaces before officers clubs; sometimes in soldiers 
barracks under conditions of great discomfort; but 
always most heartily received, especially by the private 
soldiers. Miss Tuttle's letters deserve publication as a 
permanent contribution to the history of the war. They 
have the intimate touch of personality which always 
holds the interest of the reader. — Mrs. Helen Ekin 
Starrett in Portland Oregonian. 



Portland, Oregon 
1919 



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FOREWORD 

Friends of the writer are asked to remember that these 
letters were dashed off at a high rate of speed, often at 
the close of a busy day. There was no thought of polishing 
them for publication, even if there had been time. One 
letter ends with the words : "I have been three hours 
writing this letter. It is now 12:30, and I am going to 
bed. As I write, one thing tumbles out on top of another, 
and I sometimes feel that there is an unconscionable lot of 
stuff for you to wade through. But I write what is hap- 
pening to me, and I assume that you want it all." 

H. M. T. 



&€\F9? 



U 



CHAPTER I 



Paris, the Queen of Cities — Armistice — Red tape — Notre Dame — 
Champs Elysee — Old papal palace — France gives us gratitude that 
belongs to Belgium — Delightful walks — King and Queen of Belgium 
— Baths in Paris — seeming lack of poverty — Piano practice on a "tin 
pan" — Dinner at a Y. W. C. A. hostess house — Hotel des Empereurs 
— Funny things seen in Paris — Hints of homesickness. 

"^lll^ARIS, Nov. 12, 1918. — We arrived just in time to 
jI^J see Paris celebrate the signing of the armistice. It 
^§^ is a wonderful thing to have seen. Paris is certainly 
the Queen of cities, and now she is working herself 
up into a perfect frenzy of excitement. I had to go to head- 
quarters about 4 o'clock, and had a hard time getting through 
the dense crowds. It had the Rose Festival beaten a mile. I 
wish you could see the amount of red tape one has to go 
through with. I have never before in my life signed so 
many papers, or given so many of my photographs. 

To-day I had a delightful walk along the Rue de Rivoli, 
to the Place Hotel de Ville, across the Seine to Notre Dame 
Cathedral, and then across the big Place to the police 
station. Notre Dame is not like Antwerp Cathedral and 
others, so hemmed in that it can hardly be seen. I can 
imagine no finer setting than that of Notre Dame. It is 
a matter of increasing wonder to me, the hundreds and 
hundreds of acres, right in the heart of the city, devoted 
to wonderful buildings, parks and open places. Berlin, as 
I remember it, is a crude and upstart country town, com- 
pared with Paris. 

It is an amazing thing to see the way Americans are 
regarded here. It is "Vive I'Amerique" wherever one goes, 
and the great trinity of flags which one sees everywhere 
is of France, England and America. I am grateful for 
what the gods send. But I feel that we are usurping a 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 



place in the affection of the French people that rightly 
belongs to Belgium. 

;|: * * * H< 

To-day I walked the length of the Champs Elysee. Our 
entertainment headquarters and the library for the soldiers 
— the A. L. A. — ^are in the old Papal palace, on the Rue 
d'Elysee, right across the street from the mansion of the 
president of the French republic. 



Nov. 14. — I saw the King of Belgium this afternoon. 
We got caught on one of our errands by a procession, and 
saw both the King and the Queen. I should like to be here 
when President Wilson comes ; I want to see the eft'ect it 
will have on the thousands of Americans here. The amount 
of khaki one sees on the streets is really uncanny. 

It is funny to hear the Americans discussing baths. 
Those who used to have a hot bath at night, and a cold 
shower every morning, now get out a brass band, so they 
Siiy, whenever they take one. This hotel is a good one, 
and yet not only do they have no rooms with baths, but 
they do not even have a bath on every floor. * * * 

It is interesting to notice the seeming lack of poverty 
and deprivation here in Paris. I presume in the war zone 
it is very different. But every one looks well dressed and 
well fed, and no beggars are to be seen. At all table d'hotes, 
meat is served twice a day ; and as I notice the prices, they 
seem about the same as at home. On the whole, vegetables 
are cheaper, but fruit is out of sight. You wouldn't see 
such apples in Oregon, even as windfalls. And prices are 
away up. Lemons are 12 cents apiece. On the other hand, 
I hear that England has been denying herself everything, 
for the sake of the people of France. Conditions there are 
much more acute. Instead of twice a day, meat is served 
there twice a week. 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 



Nov. 21. — I am getting along, making the best of things, 
and am contented. But if I allowed myself to, I could be 
very homesick. I had my first piano-practice this morning 
on a tin pan at Y headquarters. 

This noon I went to a hotel that used to be called the 
St. Petersbourg. It had the reputation of being very gay. 
And the humor with which Fate frequently guides the 
affairs of men has ordained that it should now be managed 
by the Y. W. C. A. It is a delightful place — no tipping, 
and meals which cater to American tastes. To-day, for 
five francs, we had mussels, good-sized portions of veal 
with onions and mushrooms, creamed potatoes, celery with 
tomato sauce, and bread and cheese. It was a delicious 
meal. 



Nov. 2"]. — I have finally moved from my cold and gor- 
geous hotel. I have found a small room in a little hotel, 
with no lift, but nice and homey. I am supposed to have 
heat in my room, and all for four francs a day. I had a 
good night, on a comfortable bed, last night. Then I have 
also found a little restaurant in the neighborhood, where 
they serve for 2.75 francs a dinner which would cost four 
to five anywhere else. My noon meal I take at the Y. W. 
C. A. Hostess House. It costs me five francs, but it is 
worth it. I enjoy the atmosphere there, h: * * Later. 
Two other Y girls have followed me to this hotel, and so 
we make quite a nice little party. The people are all so 
pleasant, it is a welcome change from the surliness of the 
Central. I judge from what the young woman at the desk 
said, that it is a little old-fashioned place, where they have 
had the same clientele for years and years, and so do not 
make much of an effort to cater to transient trade. There 
is a darling little salon, with two pianos, both rather out 
of tune, but doubtless better than we shall have in the 
future ; and we can practice here, without trotting about. 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 



from Dan to Beer-sheba. It has the magnificent name, 
"Hotel des Empereurs." 



Nov. 29. — We hear that we are to be sent to the south 
of France as the best place to become acclimated. It is as 
much to the interest of the Y as to ourselves that we be kept 
in good condition. They don't want us to come down with 
pneumonia or bronchitis (as some of the entertainers have 
done lately) and have to be sent home. * * * One sees 
some funny things in this town ; for example, a big two- 
wheeled cart, wheels perhaps seven feet high, with a great 
load, drawn by four big horses, all tandem. And trailers 
to trucks, twenty or thirty feet long, on two wheels. And 
I saw one tiny auto, about a third the size of a Ford, look- 
ing like a scared baby buggy in the general jam. 

My previous training abroad is going to stand me in 
fine stead. I shall suffer far less than most Americans from 
differences and inconveniences. Of course, I wish I were 
home ; but that is something to look forward to. And how 
I shall appreciate it when I get back ! I am alreadv at a 
place where I should be glad to cook again, if onlv I had 
a chance. And as for getting my hands on the steering- 
wheel of an auto — ! 

When I get back, you may be sure I shall appreciate 
things ; and after my term of service here has expired, I 
shall not stay one split second longer than I have to ! 



St. Naz.mre, Dec. 6. — We gave nine performances in 
seven days before leaving Paris. We have found our work 
very mteresting. I am accompanist for the others. I play 
solos when the piano is good enough, and I shall also give 
readings. We have had all sorts of experiences; hospitals 
where we performed in the wards ; rooms where the bovs 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 



were sitting on tables, and we were on the same floor level ; 
huts where there were several hundred present and where 
we had foot-lights ; and officers' clubs where everything 
was on a grander scale. We have gone by train, by Ford 
truck where we were nearly jolted out into the mud, and 
in a beautiful Packard limousine. We have dressed behind 
packing cases in the cold, with dough-boys darting through, 
and in luxurious hotel rooms. We have eaten with soldiers 
of the ranks and with officers. 

The work itself is very interesting. The boys make a 
very inspiring audience, they are so fresh and enthusiastic 
and seem to enjoy so much what one does for them. Our 
work is on the order of a good concert program, and as a 
rule, of course, they don't get many of that sort. They 
have more vaudeville. A certain element doesn't care for 
the sort of thing we bring, but a large element does ; and 
in every audience there are many who know good things 
and are hungry for them. There are always officers in 
every audience, many of them with West Point training, 
and certainly they should not be entirely ignored. 

After we had finished our program last night, we had 
to wait over an hour for our car. While we were waiting, 
I suddenly heard the strains of the Rachmaninofif prelude 
I had just been playing. I afterwards talked to the boy 
who was playing. He really played remarkablv well, and 
was playing Chopin's Funeral March when we at last left 
the place. It shows the sort of thing one has to face in 
entertaining in this army. In the roughest crowd, there 
is one who knows. Wherever we go, we hear of some fine 
singer or pianist ; and yesterday some professional stage 
people were in the audience when I gave my readings. It 
is a most peculiar condition. The mass of the audience is 
rough, and you have to handle them as carefully as you 
would an audience of high-spirited school boys. And yet, 
among them are such good judges of your best efforts. 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 



Our name is the Victory Company. We were not respon- 
sible for that name, and feel it quite a task to live up to it. 
Other entertainment units also are stationed here. 



St. Nazaire, Dec. 8. — Our food has been arranged 
for in a wonderful way. Five francs a day gives us three 
square American meals. At the Y hut they give you a 
big dish of mush, a buttered slice of white bread, a large 
cup of coffee or chocolate, and a good portion of jam (not 
unsweetened stewed fruit, which the French call confiture 
and charge unholy prices for), but good American jam — 
all this for breakfast, for one franc. Lunch is a good- 
sized meal for two francs, bread, meat, potatoes, a drink, 
fruit, and little cakes. Dinner at two francs is similar. It 
is a soldiers' canteen, but Y workers have their meals there, 
too. They must serve hundreds of boys each day. It is 
a Y canteen, and the workers all seem to be horribly over- 
worked. 

The canteen at meals is interesting to watch. An hour, 
or an hour and a half before the windows are opened, a 
line of soldiers begins to form. By the time the windows 
are opened, there is an extremely long line. On Sundays 
it doubles back and forth, and about fills this very large hut. 
Perhaps the meal consists of "meat pie" (but with no 
crust it is really just beef hash), mashed potatoes, cabbage, 
chocolate or coffee, and bread pudding. The food is served 
as in any cafeteria, and the line moves quite quickly. There 
are many tables, and the only trouble is that sometimes the 
food gives out. There is always that possibility. For the 
meal described, two francs is the price. It is a godsend 
to us. We tried one day getting into line with the soldiers, 
but an M. P. was so perturbed at the idea of ladies standing 
in line, when they were supposed to be served first, that 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 



we finally went up to the front. Now we simply step into 
the line at the source of supplies, and the boys step back 
for us. I don't like it altogether, but there are only five 
or six of the women entertainers here, and it seems to be 
an understood thing among all the boys. They always step 
back smilingly for us. It is also the understood thing 
from the Y standpoint. 

I feel it is better to do it that way, than to be remarkable. 




10 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 




CHAPTER II 

Entertainment work in Paris and St. Nazaire — Good concert 
work vs. vaudeville — Character of audiences — Victory party — Food 
at Y canteen — An amazingly good time — Transportation problem — 
Horse-back riding a preparation for Lizzie 'bus — ^Problems of heat, 
mud and drinking water — Wine and cigarettes for French children — 
German kindness to our soldiers — Washing barge — Christmas eve — 
Christmas packages — Canteen girls overworked — Christmas dinner 
at the Y — Worthless coal — Y secretary from Jerusalem — Negro prob- 
lem — Wrist watch and darky — Programs at officers' club and motor- 
base camp — Kittens — Camp guarding German prisoners improved 
by Y — Cake made by Miss S. — Soldier from Beirut — "The Call of 
the Wild" — "I bet she could play jazz" — Creative small audience — 
Program in mess-hall. 

T. NAZAIRE, December 15. — Of course, there are 
many things which I should prefer to have changed 
in my present Hfe, but I am really having an 
amazingly good time. The transportation problem is not 
an easy one. I should think that the Y man who has 
charge of it would lose his wits completely. He is a 
harried-looking man. I have seen something of his trials. 
Funny as it may sound, my horseback riding is now 
standing me in good stead. We occasionally ride in a 
dreadful old Lizzie 'bus, solid tires and no springs, benches 
that are not fastened down, and only curtains at the backs, 
so that if a big jolt comes — and it always does — one is in 
danger of going backwards through the curtains. The 
roads are sometimes terrible, and the result is that every 
one complains most bitterly. Last night, when we reached 

home, Miss S felt almost ill from the jolting she had 

received. But I can save myself. I may go up in a hurry, 
but I can come down when I choose. A horse does not 
always tell you beforehand just what he is going to do. 
When you have the necessary mental and muscular quick- 
ness to keep in the middle of his back, no matter whether 
he jumps up or sideways, you are much better prepared for 
a jolty machine and an awful road. I did not say so to 
Miss S., but I enjoyed the ride. It was bad enough to be 
funny. 

Our one problem is heat, and it doesn't get verv cold 



A ««Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 11 

here. I forgot. We have two other problems. One is 
drinking water, which we have to buy in bottles, at quite 
a good price, and the other is mud. St. Nazaire is the 
muddiest place on earth. And the middle of the streets 
is like nothing you ever saw in your life. There is, of 
course, a solid road bed, but on top is a coating of thick, 
rich pea soup, which beggars description. Half of the men 
go around in their hip rubber boots, worn in the trenches. 
Passing trucks splash mud clear up on the windows of 
the houses, and sometimes on passers-by. No one attempts 
to keep his shoes clean. As to the drinking water, it is 
perfectly awful ; has to be treated heaven knows how many 
times, before it is fit to drink ; and then it tastes perfectly 
vile. I can understand how it is that people are driven 
to wine. 

It is said by those who claim to know that there is a 
distinct deterioration in the French mental processes to-day, 
due both to the amount of wine they drink and to the cig- 
arette habit, begun at a tender age by the children. And 
as to the children, they have all been spoiled and turned 
into inveterate beggars by our good-natured soldiers con- 
tinually giving them coppers. * * * j^^st evening I 
was talking to a young fellow who has just come back 
from Coblenz. He said the Germans there treated them 
royally. I said that that was more of their extremely effi- 
cient propaganda. He said that the common people with 
whom our men came into contact felt that the x\mericans 
were their deliverers from the harsh masters they have had. 
I was also talking to a Y man just back from the front. 
He says what the boys there most need is entertainment, 
and their letters from home. * * * j watched a wash- 
ing barge one day. It was in a muddy, dirty river, and 
they brushed the garments with soap, rinsed them in this 
water, the color of the Chicago river, and hung them up 
to dry. No, thank you. Not for my clothes. The water 
we get here is queer. It is very yellow, and heaven only 



12 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

knows how my things will look, after three months of this 
place. * * * Like every one else here, I am counting 
the days until I can be at home again. 



Saint Nazaire, Dec. 26. — On Christmas eve, after 
our program and dance, we were brought back home in 
the Major's car, at 12 o'clock. The car was a sedan, but 
I am ashamed to say I didn't see what make. We saw 
about 200 boys going to midnight mass in the church here. 
It seems that the church was packed, about a third of them 
being French. Then we went to bed, and I went to sleep. 
During the night I was vaguely conscious of a commotion 
outside the window, and a voice shouting things, and then 
I promptly went to sleeep again, and slept till it was time 
to get up. Miss S. didn't sleep at all, so she says. The 
noise outside was so terrific all night. It seems, judging 
from her tale, that the whole American army gathered 
underneath our windows. And the riot they made quite 
frightened her. Then they began calling off men into com- 
panies, and one after another the companies marched off. 
She can't imagine how I could have slept as I did. Sleep- 
lessness is not one of my troubles, just at present. Nor is 
lack of appetite. I am always hungry. 

And speaking of Christmas, I must tell what the boys 
did near Vannes. On a hill overlooking the camp they 
built a huge cross, laid two miles of wiring and put in 
two hundred electric lights. We saw it illuminated. You 
can imagine the effect. I helped to tie the Christmas par- 
cels at Camp One. In each parcel were chocolate, chew- 
ing gum and two kinds of cigarettes. At that one camp 
they were making up five thousand of these parcels, all from 
Y money. There was a terrific amount of work connected 
with it, which falls on the Y force. The money sent from 
home is bv no means all of it. When I see how these can- 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 13 

teen girls have to work, it makes me turn pale. They do 
indeed have to be as strong as horses to stand it. 

Last evening at the Y we had a most gorgeous dinner, 
roast chicken, gravy, peas, potatoes, bread, cranberry sauce, 
nuts, raisins, chocolate, and some rare little things that 
looked like croquettes, about two inches long, filled with 
fondant, covered with chocolate and chopped nuts. Each 
one had two. The Y said that if they took in enough to 
pay for the chickens, at four dollars apiece, they would be 
doing well. In the evening we went to a camp and gave 
two short entertainments. To-day is the third day of sun- 
shine we have had, and we are revelling in it. * * * 

I have had a walk of about two and a half hours this 
morning, and have seen some very beautiful country. The 
birds are singing as if it were a spring day, and, best of 
all, the mud is drying up. * * Our present supply of 
coal is worthless. Miss S. has spent the entire afternoon 
struggling with our fire. I have simply paid no attention 
to it, sitting in the other room, and going for a walk when 
I got cold. The weather still continues delightful, and I 
consider my way of warming up much better than hers. 



Dec. 2^. — Last evening we went to a camp of loco- 
motive engineers. After our program, we watched the 
rehearsal of a very good darky minstrel show. It was 
being coached by a lieutenant with rather a fine face. Then, 
as we were waiting for our 'bus, we visited the secretary 
in his room. He was a most interesting man, a Syrian, 
with a college education, and a slight accent in his English, 
wiiich is otherwise perfect. He was born ten miles from 
Jerusalem. * * * Yesterday we went back to a negro 
camp we had visited shortly after our arrival in St. Nazaire. 
They were then a very delightful, responsive audience. 
Yesterday they were dull and unresponsive. The mistake 
had been made of telling them some time ago that they 



14 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

were going home at once, and now, as we were told by 
their secretary, they are very restive. Miss S., being a 
Southerner, understands negroes, and she says they are 
just like sulky children. She said that when a "nigger" 
won't sing, things are very radically wrong, and she tried 
to get them to join with her in singing some plantation 
songs, but they would not respond. It is certainly a prob- 
lem how to handle these men of elementary minds, who 
can't reason things out, and only know that they want to 
go home, and can't. 



Dec. 28. — This week we have three performances to 
negroes. Miss S. says that this would be almost impossible 
for her, were it not for her Christian Science and her natu- 
ral feelings of right and justice. Southerners would ordi- 
narily about as soon go out and put on an entertainment 
for horses in the stable. Not that they don't like the blacks, 
but they consider them a lower order of intelligence. And 
this happened, last evening. An entertainment party that 
was in our 'bus went to a certain camp and, seeing negroes 
there, concluded a mistake had been made, and wandered 
about until they found a white hut. A program was already 
in progress there, and it happened that Mr. B., our chief, 
was there too. So the spokesman of the party, a woman 
from Texas, announced, with a flash of her eye, that she 
would entertain no negroes. The argument waxed long 
and hot, but eventually the lady changed her mind and the 
party went back to the colored hut. Their frame of mind 
can be imagined. I hope the negroes did not feel it, or the 
good that should have been done would have been turned 
to harm. I imagine that many entertainments are being 
sent these negroes, probably quite a bit more than usual, 
because of their particular restiveness. About twenty thou- 
sand negroes are in this vicinity. 

Before I play. I always take my wrist watch off and put 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 15 

it on the piano. Heretofore, I have always remembered to 
pick it up when I finished, but to-day I forgot. On reach- 
ing home I missed it, and rushing right ba'ck, I arrived at 
the hut and walked up to the piano, where a negro was 
playing. I asked him if he had seen my watch. He hesi- 
tated for a few seconds, and then drew it out of his pocket. 
Whether his hesitation was due to a slowness of wit. or to 
a quick survey of the situation from all its angles, of course 
I don't know. But it is quite possible that if I had not 
gone immediately, I should never have seen my watch again. 
There seems a sort of fate following that watch, first stolen 
by a house burglar, and now taken care of (?) by a darky! 

The best hotel in Vannes, where we recently stayed for 
a week, is simply alive with negro lieutenants. And Miss 
S. — a Southerner ! She sputtered about it every little while, 
but of course they were not doing us any harm, so I simply 
laughed at her. They were many of them fine looking fel- 
lows, and behaved in a perfectly civilized way. It is really 
very pathetic when one thinks about it. Here they are, 
receiving attention from the French people — French girls 
usually prefer the attentions of a negro officer to those of 
a white private — are ordering white servants about, and 
are seeing what life is like to white people. They must 
now go home, and with that memory behind them take 
their place again as inferiors. 

We recently gave a program for an officers' club. Mr. 
C. and I both felt that they made an ideal audience. I felt 
that I did better than I had done for a long time. But the 
others felt that they were cold and blase! Perhaps I mis- 
took those two qualities for mere undemonstrativeness. Be- 
ing undemonstrative myself, perhaps I imagined a greater 
interest than they felt. But the response seemed to me 
ample, and the well-bred quiet was a joy after some of the 
restless crowds we get among the boys. 

A few weeks ago we went to a motor-base camp, and 



16 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

the audience appealed to me at the time as a particularly 
fine one. They are stationary, not shifting, as so many 
camps are. Last evening we went there again, and changed 
our program entirely. I tried for the first time, '*J"''''> Eaten 
by the Lion," and it seemed to go. I also give Kipling's 
"If," as well as the parody thereon, a short Service poem, 
and "The Birth of the Opal." Mr. C. was screamingly 
funny in his recitations. The secretary said that our pro- 
gram had improved fifty per cent. He is not of the flatter- 
ing type, and had done something himself in the entertain- 
ment line, so I judge from what his sister said. She is, 
helping him in the canteen, and is a very nice woman. After 
the program we had to wait for about an hour for our 'bus. 
and so I sat by a nice warm stove, with a most adorable 
kitten curled up asleep in my lap. One evening at another 
camp we were invited into a little back room, after our per- 
formance, for chocolate and macaroons,and a prettv little 
black kitten soon made its appearance. I picked it up and 
stroked it, and found out that French cats like just the same 
sort of things that American cats like. It displayed great 
content and purred and tried to kiss me. 

Last evening we went to a camp where German pris- 
oners are guarded. When we have been there before, it 
has been cold and most unattractive, with candles only for 
light. Since then the Y has taken charge of it. Now it 
has a secretary, a little canteen and three stoves, and is 
brilliantly lighted ; with a good piano, as pianos over here 
go ; and instead of gloom and dirt, there is an atmosphere 
of warmth and light and cheer. The audience was very 
nice, and included six or eight officers. After the program 
we had a perfect spread at the officers' quarters. 

Last night Miss S. conspired with the secretary, the 
corporal, and the sergeant, as to making them a home- 
made cake some time soon, they to furnish the materials. 
It seems cake is her specialty. She is not much of a cook, 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 17 



she says, except for a few fancy things. But eggs are 
almost impossible to get. I shall help eat the cake. '•' * * 
Later. The cake turned out a perfect poem ; but in making 
it Aliss S. broke all the rules I was taught to observe. 

This morning at breakfast I met an interesting young- 
soldier. He spent three years in a missionary school in 
Beirut, and three years ago he went through Turkey, Aus- 
tria and Germany, with German troops, a two months' trip. 
The Germans have been so short of rubber, he says, that 
thev have used steel tires for their trucks, with a clever 
contrivance of springs. Last night at dinner I had a little 
talk with a young fellow. As he left, he said he was so 
glad to have had the talk, the first for six or seven months 
with an American woman. How often that is said to me ! 



Dec. 29. — Last night we gave a program to a very wild 
and noisy bunch. I gave Service's fine poem, "The Call 
of the Wild." I was amazed at how silent they sat, and 
how thev took it. If you understand them, you can "get 
by" with lots of things. And on another occasion, after 
I had given this same poem, I was talking with a boy from 
Colorado, where, eighty-five miles from a railroad, he had 
three hundred acres in a valley 9,000 feet high. He spoke 
of enjoying the Service poem so much. It is indeed true 
that this army is made up of all kinds of men. He said! 
he hadn't spoken to an American girl for months. At an- 
other time, we gave our evening program to one of those 
delightful small audiences, who are so creative in their 
influence, when they gaze and listen with such rapt atten- 
tion. The "Call of the Wild" was really the only serious 
thing on the program. The feeling that came to me as I 
was giving the poem was peculiar. I seemed to enter into 
its meaning as I have not done for many months. At the 
last, I felt most distinctly moved. I could hardly finish it. 
Afterwards, one of the Red Cross women, a lady who has 



18 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

a strong feeling for wildness and nature, spoke of how 
well I did it. and that I could never do it as I did unless I 
knew the wild well. It seems that one boy there, of a com- 
mon, ignorant type, rough and uncouth, came up to another 
of the canteen ladies, and singled out that number as being 
the finest on the program. It seems he couldn't stop talk- 
ing of how fine a thing it was. To me, that was very note- 
worthy, particularly when the number in cjuestion is so fine 
a thing. 

We have heard a good deal lately of the soldier wanting 
rag-time. This is a confirmation of my previous ideas on 
the subject. He is probably not the only one who has felt 
the appeal of that poem. The fact that I have not heard 
of it before is nothing. It is hy chance onlv that I heard 
this time. A chance word from the outside often means 
much to the performer. Sometimes he needs encourage- 
ment the most, when it is least suspected. 

After our program at the Red Cross the head asked 
me if I would play for them to dance. It seems they haven't 
a single pianist in their canteen, which is very unusual. I 
told her I would do mv best. And so. with a cornet at my 
side and a violinist scraping merrily in the rear, I played 
for perhaps an hour and a half, while Terpsichore held her 
joyful sway. I seemed to do it all right ; at least I heard 
no complaints. Really, with the other two instruments, I 
don't believe any one knew whether I was playing or not. 
Afterwards I heard that one young fellow, speaking of me, 
said, "Gee, that lady sure could tickle the ivories. I bet 
she could play jazz just great." In his mind, jazz is the 
supreme form of high art. We left at midnight, and I was 
tired. * * * The other day I played before one of those 
small private audiences, which draw out one's very best ; a 
few ofificers, a few privates and four or five ladies. The Miss 
W., who had enjoyed the "Call of the Wild," had a sister, 
who studied with MiacDowell and other well-known men. 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 19 

She has evidently been accustomed to money, culture and 
Society, spelled with a capital, but withal is thoroughly 
natural and delightful. She loves the French, too, and has 
great faith in them, as individuals and as a nation. She 
came to me afterwards, with tears in her eyes, and said the 
Prelude, the last thing I played that morning was the last 
thing her sister had played before she died. And she 
thought I did it magnificently. She meant the word, as a 
mature woman of cultivation would use it. It was not the 
meaningless superlative of a girl. I felt that a compliment 
worth having. I hope this letter does not sound too ego- 
tistical. You said you wanted to have me write such things 
home. 



Dec. 30. — Last evening we went to a near-by dock, and 
found that they were not expecting us. The mess hall (a 
great barn of a place, with tables and benches, a stairway 
running up one side, and a big open door which let in all 
the wandering breezes of heaven), was where we had to 
perform. The piano was fair, but the lighting was very 
poor, so candles were placed around. The audience was 
fine, attentive and appreciative. There were many disturb- 
ances from upstairs and outside, but when the audience is 
listening, that is all I care about. The boys were sitting 
on the stairway, on the tables and benches, and around 
behind us. After the program we had a little talk with a 
few of the boys. One sergeant told me that it was the 
first time in five months that he had spoken to an Amer- 
ican girl. It seems that this is the first entertainment they 
had had there by ail-American talent. They were a nice 
audience, and I enjoyed it. One nice thing about our work 
is that we usually get home by nine. All these boys have 
to go to bed early, so we begin our programs at 7:30. 



20 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 



i5 



CHAPTER III 

Nantes — Joy rides — Ford wreck — Three fine secretaries — Camp 
ot engineers — Marines guarding picric acid — Tlie performance, the 
decorations, and the Ford — St. Jean de Mont.s — Jelly, beds, ward- 
r° m"^-^'"*^ colonel thirty years of age— Cold ride in truck from 
L,a Trinite — Interesting men — Mass in Nantes cathedral — Bordeux 
cathedral — Sea voyage, since censorship is relaxed — Life-boat drill 
a farce — Burning of new hydroplanes at Le Croisic — Lovely walks 
— Roads — Flowers— Speech — Ben Greet actor — "All kinds "in this 
man s army" — Walk on the beach at La Trinite — Spring green be- 
ginning — Naval station — Stories of the ensign in command — Cuckoo 
Song — Miss S. and I— More fine walks. 

ANTES, FRANCE, January 4, 1919, — In my last, 
I told about the Ford that broke down with us 
at Vannes. We have had some weird rides, and 
I am glad I am still alive. I remember one we had in St. 
Nazaire with an extremely youthful French driver, in a 
G. M. C. truck. I don't exactly understand it ; I have never 
yet been killed by a French driver, but thev always make 
me nervous. A doughboy can do anything he wants to, 
no matter how wild it seems, and I don't get nervous, for 
I feel instinctively that he will get away with it. But the 
French give me the impression of losing their heads when 
a crisis comes. Instead of doing the right thing instinc- 
tively, as the doughboy does, they wave their arms and 
jabber. So I was in a frame of mind for disaster before 
our vehicle ever staited. Our party started from head- 
quarters, and then we went to a hotel to pick up some 
other entertainers, not of our unit. The boy forgot them 
until we were about a block away, and then he proceeded 
to back up. He backed at full speed right across a well- 
traveled street intersection, where he couldn't possiblv see 
what was coming from the right. Providence guarded us, 
and so nothing hit us. After we had picked up that party, 
we went after another unit, consisting of a French woman 
with a violin, and a Frenchman with a full-sized harp. We 
were then ten in the 'bus, and the harp was balanced pre- 
cariously on the edge at the rear. This particular 'bus was 
the hardest riding one in the garage, and was always taken 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 21 

out on the longest rides, where the roads were the vilest. 
So we bumped along, at about twenty miles an hour, over 
chuck-holes and in ruts, until we came to a camp where 
the driver mistakenly thought we were going to get out. 
And in turning around he backed over the brick edging of 
a well-kept little lawn, and had to make four or five attempts 
before the machine would go back over the edging. Each 
time he failed, we would be brought up short with a sicken- 
ing jolt, which would certainly have landed the harp in the 
road if the Frenchman's language hadn't been strong enough 
to keep it in. The two French people were swearing in a 
highly efficient manner in their mother tongue, and the 
American men were doing the same in their own tongue, 
and altogether the situation was such as to recjuire a better 
vocabulary than mine to describe. However, we finally 
got away from there, and as we bumped along all at once 
the seat on the other side of the 'bus — a long wooden 
bench — broke down, and the girls, in their light entertain- 
ing dresses — to say nothing of the men and the harp— were 
precipitated on the floor. More oral pyrotechnics. Our 
last adventure was when we arrived at the camp which 
was our destination, and our 'bus began skidding and just 
hesitated several times on the brink of a ditch so deep that 
it would have meant a very serious accident if we had 
gone over. 

However, to return to our muttons — in this case the 
stranded Ford in \'"annes — that experience was quite differ- 
ent, and to me enjoyable. You see, our driver was an 
American ! And while we waited for the other car to come 
and fetch us, we sat around a nice warm fire in the back 
room of a Y hut with three very interesting secretaries. 

One is a church organist in New York, who knows 
intimately the composer Charles Cadman, and the negro 
composer Burleigh. He seems a fine man. Our driver is 
another. His name is Hunter, and at the front this fall 



22 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

he was wounded three times in one day. He lav out in 
No Man's Land for ten hours, from early morning, and 
said he never expected to get out alive. About noon a Red 
Cross man came to look after him, but he sent him to the 
other boys. He said that when it was a question of his 
going over the top, the Colonel came to him and said, "Now 
you are unarmed, and we are not supposed to let you go 
over. You'd better stay behind." But Mr. H. insisted 
that he had been with the boys all along, and nothing- 
short of a positive order would keep him back. So the 
Colonel patted him on the back, and told him to go ahead. 

While he was lying in No Man's Land he wasn't afraid. 
He felt that if he lived, he would go back to his mother, 
and if not, he would go to his Father, and it made very 
little difference which. When he came out of the hos- 
pital, his nurse said he would not be able to do anything 
for a month. But he went right to driving a car, has been 
doing it now for about three months, and says it would be 
hard to find a healthier specimen than he is. He takes 
out parties every evening, and much of the time gets soak- 
ing wet, but you hear no complaints from him about the 
climate, or about catching cold. He loves the out-of-doors 
in all its phases, and is very fond of Brittany. He is thor- 
oughly efficient and, no matter what happens, is alwavs 
cheerful. * * * On that evening when our Ford broke 
down, we had been due at a little party, on our return, 
where we were to give a short program. It was given for 
some Y people, and some M. P.'s. We were due at about 
nine, got there at the fashionable hour of eleven, and stayed 
until about one. 

This afternoon we w^ent to an engineers' camp where 
they are shut in and hungry for entertainment. As an 
addition to our program, a young lieutenant sang two songs 
and a cjuartette sang two. We had a wonderfully enthusi- 
astic audience. We enjoyed it very much. 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 23 

Jan. 18. — Tonight we had an interesting experience. 
We went to a small camp of marines, gnarding a supply 
of picric acid. There are only fifty of them. There have 
been various efforts to send out entertainment parties, some 
of which have been lost, and one party got stuck in the 
nmd, and it took twenty German prisoners to pull them 
out. So last night they sent in a young fellow who showed 
our driver the way. The trip was about six miles, through 
a beautiful country, with one of the most wonderful moons 
I have ever seen, and a balky Ford. The moon doesn't 
often shine here, but last night it was full, and one could 
almost have read by its light. After we got out of town 
we passed through lovely, quiet country lanes, and saw 
what looked like ruins, every now and then. It was really 
a scene of transcendent beauty. 

Our Ford would run a few 'blocks, knocking and pop- 
ping the while, and then would sigh, and die. Then our 
reliable American driver, the head of the transportation 
department, would get out, and he and our guide would 
take turns in cranking the beast, until finally it would make 
up its mind to go another few blocks. Of course, we were 
late in arriving, and as a finishing touch to its performance, 
the Ford ran into a mud hole, which took quite a time and 
a lot of man power to evacuate. You see, I am acquiring 
military terms. 

We v.ere warmly welcomed by an audience which had 
heard us coming for a long time. The night and the coun- 
try was so still that I imagine we could have been heard 
for miles. A lieutenant afterwards told us that he had said, 
of the noise, "It is either a motorcycle, an airplane, or a 
Ford." The whole camp was thus notified that we were 
on our way, and we found them seated, and waiting expect- 
antly. We were afterwards told that the room had been 
empty, up to the time that Lizzie had announced to high 
heaven that she was coming. 

There was no piano there, so Mr. C. gave eight or nine 



24 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

short readings, whistled one thing, unaccompanied ; Miss S. 
sang" five or six songs, and I gave two Service poems, several 
other numbers, and an O. Henry story. We ended with our 
ensemble number, and two or three familiar songs, in which 
the boys joined. Then, after a little chat, we started for 
home. Both the room and the audience were the smallest 
we have yet seen. The room was beautifully decorated with 
holly. Many people talk about the woman's touch making 
things so attractive. But I have found that many men do 
quite as well, if not better. Candles were stuck around 
plentifully,' and made a beautiful, cheerful effect. The room 
was warm, too, rather a novelty for us, and altogether was 
as attractive a place as I have seen for some time. I enjoyed 
my numbers in that hall. It was small enough so that I did 
not have to center my chief attention on being heard at the 
back, and was thus able to bring out some fine points, other- 
wise lost. And the numbers were certainly appreciated. 
These men are marooned in a lonesome spot, and get very 
few entertainments. So what they do get are the more 
appreciated. And they are a particularly nice set of men, 
anyway. 

Well, as to the return : Lizzie had had time to con- 
sider her wrongs during the show, and the more she thought 
of them the greater they grew. So she finally refused to 
budge at all. About a dozen marines succeeded in pushing 
her out of the mudhole, where she had sulkily buried her 
nose, and after she had been turned around, we got in, and 
these same marines pushed us about a quarter of a mile 
to a shed ; and there the machinist of the lot got some tools, 
and a kerosene lantern, and held it right inside the engine, 
with gas fumes terribly thick. It was the first time I had 
ever seen it done, and it made me a bit nervous. But noth- 
ing happened, and I suppose they knew what they w^ere 
about. While these operations on Lizzie were taking 
place, a verv nice young lieutenant spent the time talking 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 25 

to the two ladies, so we had a good time. He had helped 
push us, that far. It was discovered that the feed pipe had 
become clogged, and when it was blown out. and the engine 
raced, Lizzie forgot her wrongs sufficiently to proceed 
homeward. She still muttered and complained, but we 
arrived at our hotel at about 10:15. 



St. Jean de Monts, Jan. 10. — I have just had a won- 
derful breakfast, including a saucer of jelly. A French- 
man whom I met had much to say about the jelly ; it seems 
it was made of saccharin and gelatine. But I don't care, 
it tasted good. And one thing the French understand is 
beds — their beds are all delightfully comfortable. 

And at this little summer hotel, I have a place to hang 
my things. Our rooms usually have fine wardrobes with 
beautiful mirrors, but when you open them, you find rows 
of shelves, with no place to hang anything. * * * Last 
night, before our program, I played in the officers' club, 
and Miss S. sang. The Y women here are most delightful 
and entertained us royally. The Colonel at the head of 
the camp is only thirty, and they say the boys all idolize 
him. The army car with a fine driver brought us back 
to Nantes. It was a lovely ride of about fifty miles. As I 
said before, I am having a fine time. But I wish I were 
home just the same. If I could come home to-morrow, with 
no sense of work undone, wouldn't I jump at the chance! 



Nantes, Jan. 14. — To go back to that long, cold ride 
in the truck from La Trinite, I don't think I went into 
details. I was not dressed very warmly. For some reason, 
the front seat was cold. A draft caught one fore and aft, 
and from both sides. It was a cold day, and before long 
it began to rain. It was a trip of at least an hour. The 
delightful secretary who had us in charge insisted on the 
two ladies sitting in front, as being the best place. After 



26 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

a while, Miss S. moved into a back seat, where it was 
warmer, and I stayed alone with the driver. Before long, 
had I consulted my own inclinations, I would have gone 
back, too. But I stayed on account of the driver. The sec- 
retary had told us about him, an awfully nice boy, but with- 
out the glimmer of a sense of humor. When such a person 
gets cold and wet, he is liable to feel injured. I felt that 
so long as I sat there, he would not feel quite so deserted 
and alone. And besides, if I at all represented American 
womanhood to him, which I might well do, under the cir- 
cumstances, I did not wish to appear to be a quitter. On 
arriving we performed in a cold hall, and not onlv was 
there no fire, but for the program we had to lay ofif our 
wraps. And coming home, I again sat with the driver, and 
got wet, and thoroughly chilled. Perhaps my attitude seems 
funny, but I believe it was well taken. On the way home, 
the driver began to complain a bit about how cold he was, 
sitting in a pool of water ; he was on the windy side, and 
so was worse off than I. I could see he wasn't feeling 
happy. Then, after a bit, we started to talking, and he was 
at last very cheerful when we got home. That was six 
days ago, and so far as I am concerned, T'm all right yit." 



Nantes, Jan. 15. — Last night I went downstairs to 
write in what one might call the lobby of this hotel. \^ari- 
ous interesting people congregate there. I had a chat with 
an American lieutenant of engineers, whose parents are 
both Roumanian. He had lived in Roumania until he was 
eight. His English is perfect, with no trace of accent, I 
also had quite a talk with another man, about fifty years 
of age, a Y secretary, here temporarily. He had been a 
Congregational missionary in China. This morning, Sun- 
day, I went to the Cathedral, and spent about an hour, 
listening to the service and absorbing the atmosphere of 
the place. It is a very beautiful structure, and at the begin- 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 27 

ning of the war a contract had beeen let to an Austrian 
firm for its repair and renovation. Of course, the work 
stopped immediately, and the scaffolding, weather worn 
and gray, is still there. The service was beautiful, the 
organ has a very pure tone ; and in the large spaces the 
big choir had a subdued effect. The costumes of the differ- 
ent men and boys in the procession were most interesting, 
one high dignitary being clothed in magenta, closely fol- 
lowed by two in scarlet, and some were in white and gold. 
A. number of adorable little boys wore scarlet, with white 
capes ; some older boys were in purple, and the men were 
in black, with edgings of red. The choir wore black robes 
with their white accordion-pleated capes, and the lace worn 
by the dignitaries was beautiful indeed. 

This Cathedral is of the fifteenth century. I had no 
such thrill there, however, as in the cathedral at Bordeaux. 
Of course, the cathedral was very beautiful, but I imagine 
the difference was more in my frame of mind. I never 
before had the tears start at the beauty of an interior, as 
happened to me in Bordeaux cathedral. That was at the 
beginning of France for me. Now I have settled to a more 
commonplace frame of mind. 

There are some interesting facts about my trip over 
that I have not written, until the censorship should be 
relaxed. Our boat was the Espagne, fast, narrow, and 
about fourteen thousand tons. Out of New York harbor, 
we were escorted for about twelve hours bv three hydro- 
planes. Each one at first was a speck on the horizon ; it 
looked like an enormous dragon-fly. Then we heard a faint 
whir, growing louder and louder. They went around us 
in great circles, sometimes flying off for a mile or so, but 
always coming back. One, in paticular, made great swoops 
downward, passing close to where we were. Thev were 
large planes, holding several men, and the roar thev made 
was one of the most thrilling things I have ever heard. To 



28 A <'Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

see these gigantic birds, endowed with human intelHgence ; 
to realize the menace below the waves ; to feel that they 
were protecting the great ship ; to hear that wonderful 
crescendo as they came near and dipped toward us — all 
this I shall never forget. After they left us, we had no 
convoy until one day out of Bordeaux. Then a destroyer 
picked us up and trudged along in our wake. It was com- 
forting to see. but there was no thrill about it. Perhaps 
it was because it had no spectacular quality and lacked 
romance. 

They say that no French liner has been lost during this 
war. Certainly they were far less particular about convoys 
than other ships. One young woman with whom I talked, 
came over before we did. and had no sign of a convoy. 
Various reasons are assigned. They say that the French 
carry the Swiss mail, verv valuable to the Germans ; and 
that the Kaiser had some shares of stock in French ships. 
* * * Our berths were $i6o each. '■' * * In the steer- 
age, a party of perhaps two hundred Polish soldiers were 
going over to fight. Just as we were getting into the danger 
zone on this side I heard the comforting news that we had 
a lot of ammunition on board. One of the nine Y girl enter- 
tainers on board died about six days out. She was a nerv- 
ous wreck from the Michigan fires, had a weak heart, was 
horribly seasick, and had had a touch of flu. The body 
was taken on to Bordeaux. We had with us some inter- 
esting people. A Dr. A., of Pittsburg, reported to be a 
multi-millionaire, who was an evangelist "because he liked 
it." He was breezy, energetic, fat, something of a bon 
vivant. He was very nice to me, and when I felt so ill, 
the first day, he would come around the deck and make 
some jokes, and I'd feel better at once. He was in the Y 
service. We also had on board a French Ace, wearing 
the gorgeous French uniform. He was in reality a New 
York boy, aged nineteen, of very common lineage. And 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 29 

lastly, we had Sarah Bernhardt. She kept her cabin dur- 
ing the voyage, and rumor had it that she was on her way 
to a serious operation. She was carried on and off the boat 
in a chair. I saw her, at close range. With her was her 
granddaughter, Lysianne, about whom so much has been 
written. I do not call her a beauty, as others have done, 
but she has an exceedingly interesting face, mobile, intelli- 
gent, and temperamental. I imagine, judging from her 
rather imperious expression, that she would be a fiendish 
person to live with. She is tall, svelte, and wears an anklet. 
'^ * -" Our life-boat drill was a perfect farce. We were 
told what to do, in a crisis, but given no opportunity to 
practice. When we had our bad storm on the Bav of 
Biscay, and I looked at the ocean, I realized the utter impos- 
sibility of any mere landsman going down the rope ladder, 
and getting into any bobbing cockleshell in that wild waste. 
And now for another piece of news : When we went 
up to the little village of Le Croisic, shortly after reaching 
St. Nazaire, we found that a lot of brand new hydroplanes, 
built by America and never used, were being burned. The 
French had refused to buy them for more than the price 
of raw lumber, and rather than be "skinned"' in that man- 
ner, the Americans burned them. It would have cost more 
to send them home than they were worth, we were told. 



Nantes, Jan. 17. — Many things have happened since 
I last had time to write. I shall return to the two lovely 
walks I had long enough to say that I saw some real Scotch 
broom, open pods and all, as well as some dead brakes, and 
a quantity of blackberry vines, all of which made me think 
of home. Both mornings a sense of overwhelming hanpi- 
ness came over me. which is very rare. 

The roads here are metalled with a beautiful, trans- 
lucent stone, that looks like marble. It is rusted by the 
elements into wonderful shades of buff and brown. It 



30 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

seems that this white stone is really poor for road-making, 
being too soft to be durable ; and the reason the roads are 
so good in Brittany is that German prisoners arc kept at 
work on them all the time. * * * There is a plant much 
like Scotch broom, in blossom now. It is spiky, blooms 
in great profusion, and they say that in April it clothes 
everything in yellow. It blooms somewhat all the year 
around. It is called gorse, or furze. As good holly as ours 
grows wild here, but is straggly from lack of priming. 

After a recent performance of ours, some boys who were 
having a little party asked us to remain. We stayed per- 
haps an hour, and were called on for speeches. I had the 
sense to say little, but I think what I said was good enough. 
It came to me as a sort of inspiration after I got on my 
feet. The idea of making an ex tempore speech nearly 
turned my knees to water. The boys themselves did a few 
stunts, all to the accompaniment of chocolate and wafers. 
It transpired that one of them had been with Ben Greet, 
and has lately been the manager of some well-known actor. 
Truly, there are all kinds in this army. The next day I 
spent in bed, eating nothing, until just before I left for 
our evening's performance, when I had a few cookies. For 
that day, at least, I was very much under the weather. 

We were then at La Trinite. a little fishing village on 
the coast, which has some beautiful summer cottages. On 
Sunday I got up fairly early and, the weather proving 
favorable, I wandered about for about three hours and a 
half. I picked up some wonderful snail shells on the beach ; 
I skipped along the sand dunes, and watched the imitation 
surf. I talked to a fisherman who was digging in the wet 
sand. He was after fish bait, and had a shovel that would 
have been just the thing for clams. And for some time I 
watched a figure in khaki that was trying to get over to 
me. For some time I hadn't noticed him. his coloring 
was so like the sand and the rocks. It was a lonely spot, 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 31 

a mile from anywhere in every direction. Between him 
and me was a little stream that emptied into the ocean. 
He finally went away up stream, and so got over. He was 
a most adorable boy from Pennsylvania, who has for nine 
months been at the front, five of them in a hospital. He 
was now at a hospital two or three miles away. He and I 
had a most delightful talk and walk. The walks I have 
at these places are a great joy to me. 

To-day I saw spring green making its appearance. At 
our hotel a typically continental thing happened. We three 
of the Victory Company sat down to the table with three 
Frenchmen, one a man of perhaps fifty, and two young 
soldiers, his sons, both of whom had the croix de guerre, 
and other decorations of distinction. We talked English 
among ourselves, and at last one of the Frenchmen spoke 
to us in English. They all three talked it well. The father 
was a ship owner in St. Nazaire, and they were away from 
home for a few days. In that out of the way place, we 
ran upon the English language. 

We have been where the ordinary tourist never goes. 
On Sunday evening, after our program was over, we w^ere 
taken through the kitchen and bakery of the navy mess. 
We had given to us a loaf of white bread, which was about 
the best I have ever eaten. Then we went over to the Y 
rooms, and the two ladies, the two ensigns, and the two Y 
men sat and talked till eleven thirtv. 

The ranking officer at this naval station is a most inter- 
esting man. He has been ten years in service, and has seen 
all sorts of adventures. In the Philippines, in the Moro 
insurrection, he was left on the beach to guard the boat 
in which twelve men had pulled ofif from the ship ; and of 
those twelve, all were badly injured, later on, and most of 
them killed by the natives. One morning in Hawaii, he 
overslept, and so lost the car which should have taken him 
on time to his submarine ; and when he got there, it had 



32 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

gone oft on its trial trip, and never came back again. He 
told in a most graphic way the sensations of a deep sea 
diver. He himself has gone down 240 feet, the record 
being. I believe, less than 300. At sixtv feet one gets nose 
bleed, and sort of strangles, and the ears ache. At 100 
feet, the joints ache. At 200 the air pressure drives the 
air into the jjores of the skin. When the hydrogen gets 
into the blood, it is held there in solution, making the whole 
anatomy feel more normal. On coming up after a long 
dive a man must be put into a tank under pressure, and 
come back to normal very slowly. Latelv he has been in 
the air service, connected with the navy, and showed us 
manv pictures of the elephant balloons. He spoke of one 
curious thing. He has always been a little uncertain on 
heights. On the top of a mast, for example, he would be 
apt to get the impulse to throw himself down. But in a 
balloon or airship one has no such feeling. One feels that 
the earth is simply receding, while the stationary thing is 
the machine, or the basket in which one is. He savs that 
what makes this difference is the being disconnected with 
the earth. 

He is a truly interesting man. He told of all his exjieri- 
ences in the matter of fact way in which people usually 
speak who have really done big things. While we listened 
to his talk, we were sitting by a delightful fire, and the 
charming gentleman who was our host in these Y rooms 
was feeding us American chocolates, and we were getting 
warm after our experiences of the afternoon. The next 
day we went back by a Ford ambulance to Nantes. 

Miss S. sings Liza Lehmann's "Cuckoo," and it has a 
verv funnv effect on the boys. After the third or fourth 
cuckoo, the boys begin to laugh, and she is indeed lucky 
if she can get through the song without having them, all 
over the audience, joining in the cuckoo. Whenever she 
comes out on the stage again, even when I appear, they 



A '«Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 33 

join in the delightful new chorus. Sometimes, days after- 
wards, if we meet a bunch of boys, and they recognize us, 
we again hear the cuckoo. This morning we were waiting 
for the train with some soldiers who had heard us the 
night before. And as soon as Miss S. hove in sight, they 
began it, all up and down the platform, and kept it up at 
intervals for fifteen minutes or more. All this shows what 
boys they are. 

I am having a much better time than Miss S. is. She 
is far less adaptable, and demands more. She is, of course, 
a Southern girl, and is accustomed to more attention. She 
resents it when she is treated by secretaries with strict 
justice, as if she were a man. Because she is a woman, 
she feels entitled to more consideration. If she finds that 
some one else is getting something she is not, she gets it 
herself, or becomes disagreeable. As for me, I may not 
get quite all that some people do, but I get quite sufficient ; 
and I remember that those who insist on things for them- 
selves frequently make some one else suffer. In our case, 
the already overworked secretaries would be the ones to 
suffer. I have known them to work themselves into the 
hospital. It is always the conscientious ones who have to 
carrv the burdens of the shirkers. 



Nantes, Jan. i8. — This morning we stayed in bed late, 
and after a rehearsal I set out for a walk. I walked along 
the road we took last night, for about three miles, and it 
was one of the most wonderful walks I ever had. The 
road was fine, the weather lovely, the scenery about like 
the fens of England, and the peasants most interesting in 
their queer costumes. I saw a lot of cows, mostly poor 
looking milkers, of Holstein coloring and Ayrshire horns. 
I saw seven or eight small "caterpillars" trundling along 
amid much clatter, driven by Americans, to the scandaliza- 
tion of every Breton horse they met. I saw some magpies. 



34 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

This morning Miss S. and I also wandered into a wonder- 
ful old church, and heard part of the service. There was 
a beautiful toned organ, and I certainly enjoyed it. 

St. Nazaire, Feb. 2. — On my walks lately I have seen 
fruit blossoms. They looked like some kind of plum. 
Every morning it is frozen in spots, but I am not suffering 
from the cold. They have a Y library here, on the 
shelves of which I often look with longing, but my days 
are too full. I get scarcely any time for reading. This 
evening a bomb was sprung on us. We are to leave St. 
Nazaire, presumably for good, in three days. We are 
going to Brest. Everyone to whom we have talked on 
the subject says that St. Nazaire is the worst place on 
earth, with one exception, and that exception is Brest. 
However, I don't care how much it rains, if it only 
isn't cold. And I don't imagine it gets very cold any- 
where on this Atlantic coast ; and, anyway, it will be 
February when we go there, so winter won't last much 
longer. They say there are twice as many troops there 
as here. 




"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 35 



CHAPTER IV 

Calvaire near Pont Chateau — Boys like youngsters at a picnic — 
Morning work at canteen — Horses — Trip to Brest — Pontenezan — Dr. 
B. and his good influence — Meeting fine people — Programs in an old 
theater and in a leaky tent — St. Brieux — Story of "Humphrey Ward 
situation" — More walks than art museums — Horse fair scene — R. C. 
canteen and the hundred reformed soldiers — Orgies of work per- 
formed by R. C. women — Pathetic cases of drunken soldier boys — 
Advice to boys on buying gifts — Brest streets and grim chateau — 
Program in hospital with the dog — Long walk — Rain — Art gallery 
— Drunken darky and M. P. 

^SlTT LAST we have received an invitation for a trip 
^J we have long- wanted to take. The Y secretary 
•^"^ seems to me a very fine man; a college man, a 
minister from Texas; he entered the army at the be- 
ginning of the war, as a lieutenant. When hostilities 
ceased, he got transferred to the Y. He says that in 
his Y hut out there, there is not a single "Don't." He 
does everything for the boys that he possibly can, keeps 
his canteen open all day long, so long as any boy wants 
anything (most canteens have regular hours) and tries to 
serve them in every way he can. He says he is there 
for service, and I think he is. When he went out there, 
no one had any use for the Y. In fact, they felt bitter 
towards it. And he says that you never saw a more 
lonesome, forlorn set of men. Now they all swear by 
the Y, and are developing a good, homey spirit. Well, 
all this is a prelude to the statement that he had prepared 
for the men an outing for today — Sunday. 

(I have just heard an American locomotive whistle, 
and let me tell you that after the shrill toots of the French 
engines, the rich, minor triad of an American locomotive 
does the ears good.) 

We went out to Calvaire, near Pont Chateau. This 
is a pilgrimage spot for devout Roman Catholics from 
all parts of France. 

On our way out, our driver was friendly, but not 
loquacious. We followed the other truck quite closely, 



36 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

a Liberty five-ton, and the boys piled in on benches ; some 
of them facing us looked so happy and dear that I 
wanted to hug the lot of them. They were just like 
youngsters, out for a picnic. One of them was the nice 
lad who afterwards acted as guide and chewed gum all 
the way with the industry of a sheep. 

Forty acres, possibly, are laid out in a beautiful park, 
w^here various artificial grottoes contained wax figures, 
or reliefs of the Christ story. At one end was a facade 
(with no building back of it), reached by a long flight 
of steps. One must here go up on one's knees or remove 
one's shoes, after which, combined with certain prayers, 
one receives certain absolutions. In this really beautiful 
facade were various reliefs. And scattered all over the 
grounds were scenes from the Crucifixion. It took forty 
years to complete this work. It is modern, but I don't 
know the exact date. The grottoes are made of that 
same beautiful stone I saw around Vannes, which looked 
so like marble, when broken, and rusted in the elements 
so beautifullv into buffs and browns. 

There are scenes where Christ falls with the cross, 
where he comforts the mothers of Israel, and so on, all 
leading along the rocky trail, the way to the cross. On 
the top of a hill, the only one for miles around, the three 
crosses stand. They are plainly to be seen at a long 
distance. The view of the lovely, peaceful country, with 
its rounded trees, its windmills and church spires, the 
sunlight gleaming on the water and the gray-blue distance, 
was very lovely. The figures are about life size, and I 
don't know what they are made of. I incline to the 
belief that they are of clay, baked and painted white. 
No one seemed to know. I presume all this might not 
meet with the approval of a hyper-sensitive art critic. I 
am reminded of the Sieges-Allee, of the Berlin Thier- 
Garten. Here the setting of the figures is much more 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 37 



natural and graceful than there ; and the subject is one 
of devotion, rather than the aggrandizement of the Hohen- 
zollerns. Lacking the solid green background of trees, 
these figures are much less startling and abrupt; but in 
various ways it rather reminds me of the Sieges-Allee. 
Some of the faces struck me as being rather good ; that 
of the Christ, never. But this thing I particularly noticed : 
the quiet and reverential manner of everyone. 

The nice boy who liked my Russian music, acted as 
guide for me and a few soldiers. He had been there 
before. And in his boyish, inarticulate way he commented 
on its impressiveness, and the way the story was brought 
home to one, after years of unrealizing Bible study. He 
also spoke of the way he had come to a realization of 
what church stood for in a man's life. He was a min- 
ister's son, and had had to attend church twice a Sunday. 
He had often rebelled, and, as he expressed it, "played 
hookey." He said that the thing he didn't like about 
some Protestant churches was the rowdyism. Those 
were his words. We had just come out of a beautiful 
little chapel, and I had commented on the fact that, 
although I was not a Catholic and did not approve of 
all their teachings, yet my aesthetic sense was moved by 
the dignity and beauty of their service. 

However this Calvaire may affect art critics, I be- 
lieve it does common folk (of the grade of cultivation 
of myself and these soldiers) a great deal of good. It 
is undeniably impressive, and might well make many a 
thoughtless person ponder. I believe there was not one 
of the boys who was not made a little better for the 
afternoon's experience. Now this was what the secre- 
tary had arranged for them. It served the double purpose 
of taking them for an outing, to see one of the sights of 
the neighborhood and. without making it too apparent, 
bringing a little religion home to them. 



38 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

St. Nazaire, Feb. 6. — I got up this morning at half- 
past six, to help with the canteen work. I have just come 
from the dock, where for two hours we helped to serve 
chocolate to the soldiers embarking for home. It is 
peculiar, the effect that line of boys has on me. It is 
very touching to see them coming, whether their faces 
are young and boyish, or whether they are older, seamed 
faces ; they take on an entirely different quality in the 
line from what they have when one meets them singly, 
on the street. It is something childlike and appealing. 
Every now and then some clumsy fellow, impeded by 
his many burdens, gets sort of tangled up with his 
pesky pile of packages, and has to be straightened out. 
And he is so submissive and grateful that it goes to 
one's heart. My work undoubtedly lies in the other direc- 
tion. And, of course, I do get an occasional chance at 
this. But I wish I were strong enough for canteen work. 
However, each to his own task. The entertaining is usually 
considered the more desirable.* 



Brest, Feb. lo. — After a recent performance, we talked 
to the officers till our 'bus came along. One of them 
was telling of the horses there. He said that there were 
animals there ranging in value from $i,ooo to $50,000; 
that some horses there had pedigrees it would take two 
days to run off. I asked him why they used such fine 
horses in the army. As he expressed it, the thorough- 
bred has a "heart," and in a crisis always knows what to do, 
is reliable, and so on. Whereas, you can not depend on 
the scrub stock. The horse-lover knows that at the front 
the life of a horse is something like a week. And, also, 



•(It will be remembered that last winter Mrs. Theodore Roose- 
velt and Mrs. Vincent Aster came home from most efficient canteen 
work in Prance. And well known names in the entertaining work 
of the Y are Mary Garden, Mary Anderson, E. H. Sothern and Walter 
Damrosch; also the daughter of the President, Miss Margaret 
WMlson.) 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 39 

the finest Percherons that the French government had 
are now at work on the dock at St. Nazaire. Horses 
here have to be treated for mud fever ; and glanders, too, 
is here, and is apt to prove serious. 

On the trip to Brest we had, as usual, first-class tickets. 
But after we changed cars, we were in a second-class 
car, with French people only, the most of the way. This 
was unusual and did not appeal to me. Mr. C. had a 
place somewhere else, and we two women were in a com- 
partment for ten, which was frequently full, at one time 
having twelve occupants. However, they were courteous, 
and during the evening, when they left our car only par- 
tially lighted, we went through a beautiful country with 
very strong moonlight falling on it. It was very beau- 
tiful, and much more so because our car was not lighted. 
For the forty minutes before our change we had an in- 
teresting conversation with a young American major and 
a Belgian lieutenant. The American was very young, but 
very self-possessed, with a slow, quiet manner, and an ex- 
ceptionally nice, friendly face. He had spent a year or 
two in Russia, quite recently, and he said he had been 
converted by that to national prohibition. He had never 
believed in it before, but when he saw what it had done 
for the Russian people, he was heartily in favor of it. 
I do not know what branch of the service he was in. 
His coat covered all insignia, except the sign of his rank, 
which was pinned on each shoulder, and on his little 
overseas cap. The Belgian, who talked excellent English, 
was intimating that the Americans made officers too fast. 
In his army it took seventeen years to become a captain ! 
This was, to say the least, in bad taste, with the extremely 
youthful major opposite him. The American was a 
gentleman, and the argument did not become acrimonious. 
But neither showed himself in the least convinced by 
the other. 



40 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

We stayed in the train till 10:30 p. m., a ride of 
twelve hours for a comparatively short distance. At 
Vannes, where we spent so delightful a week a little 
over a month ago, two soldier boys brought us each 
a cup of cofifee from a free Y canteen at the station. It 
was extremely good coffee and was very thoughtful of 
them. It w^as an idea right out of their own heads. * * * 
We are to appear seven times each week, and shall prob- 
ably be here four weeks. Last evening we went out to 
Pontenezan, where there are barracks for something like 
100.000. It is immense, of course, and very muddy. It 
has seven or eight Y huts. 

Yesterday and today I have had long and very in- 
teresting conversations with a Dr. B — , a Congregational 
minister from a little town twenty-five miles out of Chi- 
cago. He is a fine man. He was telling yesterday of 
the way he had hunted for and found a wounded son. 
He knew him to be badly wounded and had not heard 
from him for a long time. The search was most inter- 
esting — I mean the story of his search. The boy himself 
has a remarkable record. This morning. Dr. B — was 
telling me of the campaign which started among the 
colored troops and has been spreading among the whites 
along lines of morality — what they have to fight, and how 
they are doing it. I have certainly been meeting some 
very fine people, and having some wonderful opportunities 
to hear things. I wish my memory could retain it all. 
Dr. B — has a warm human quality in his sermons, and 
seems of a deeply spiritual nature. I imagine he would 
have a wonderful influence for good on everyone he met. 



Brest, Feb. 11. — When we were stationed at St. 
Nazaire we went several times to a remount station, and 
gave our performance in an old theater. It seems that 
at one time the casino was rather well known, and now 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 41 

there is a delightful courtyard, a place where "Bains de 
Vapeur" are still advertised. The acoustics of the place 
were wonderful, but it was cold ! Of course, there was 
no heat in the theater, and a draft always came from 
somewhere. 

Was I telling about the performance in the tent, 
the other evening, when I was the only woman on the 
program? It was cold, and the piano not at all a bad 
one) was down in the orchestra pit. I had to climb up 
a high step, each time I went up for my reading. More- 
over, the tent leaked, and when I came to put on my 
coat it was too wet to wear. It had been right under 
the leak. But I had my cape along, and so was all right. 
" * * At the big barracks, at Pontenezan, where 75,000 
men can be accommodated, there are many huts, and we 
go there time after time. One young fellow heard our 
program at one hut. and came the next day to a neigh- 
boring hut, to hear it again ; he liked it so much. He 
was telling Miss S. afterwards. Of course, one is bound 
to get commendation or condemnation, depending on the 
individual. 



St. Brieux, Feb. 12. — This is a very picturesque town 
of 30,000, not so very far from Brest. It has some in- 
teresting churches, a museum and other points of interest. 
A deep valley runs along the edge of the town, and every 
square foot of ground along the sides of the valley is 
utilized by terraced gardens. At the bottom is a verv 
talkative stream, and the ravine is spanned by several 
unusual and beautiful bridges. From one point one sees 
the valley ; in the middle distance, a loftv and airv bridge ; 
and beyond, a hill, topped by a half ruined tower. The 
destruction dates from Henry of Navarre's time. The 
Red Cross lady who directed our tour of inspection, wit- 
tily referred to him as "Ornery Cat," "Henri Otiatre." 



42 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 



It was a satire on the kind of French so many Americans 
speak over here. 

I had a chance to take a lovely walk over this big and 
picturesque bridge, towards the ruined castle. It seems 
that the noble who owns the tower, and the hill on which 
it stands, and who is presumably the aristocrat of the 
region, has built a mansion just below the tower. Strange 
to say, he has placed it on the land side of the hill, away 
from the sea view. He has deserted his English wife 
for another woman. The wife, a lovely and refined 
woman, idolized her father-in-law, who took her part in 
the quarrel. A week ago he passed away, after a year's 
illness, and now she is left entirely alone. She has been 
very kind to the Americans at St. B — , and has be- 
come much interested in a certain officer. Our informant 
pronounced it quite a Humphrey- Ward situation. This 
Englishwoman has wealth and position, but seems to have 
nothing to live for, and is very unhappy. 

At all these places, I wager, I get a better idea of the 
surrounding country than most tourists. As to museums 
and the life, I left Nantes, as I left Vannes, without 
seeing all that I wanted to see. I had a nap, on two or 
three afternoons, and I had a fine chance to practice there, 
which I do not always have, and which I was glad to 
improve. If I had consciously chosen, however, I should 
have done as I did. I had the walks at Vannes, and 
the hour in the cathedral at Nantes. 

I have been both amused and disgusted by a sort of 
horse-fair scene I have been watching from my windows. 
Seven animals were led out, some mature horses, some 
colts, perhaps two years old, most of them with good 
draft blood. One iron-gray colt was particularlv good. 
The plan, as I afterwards found out, was to tie them 
together in bunches of three, one to another's tail. The 
iron-gray was honored by being by himself. Naturally, 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 43 



the horses protested at having their tails used as leading 
ropes. The French method of bringing a refractory horse 
to time is to stand in front of him with a stick and beat 
him violently in the face. It is evidently assumed that 
any horse will then know what is expected of him, and 
will at once execute his master's desires. He will at 
once pull the too heavy load, or will become resigned to 
having his caudal appendage meddled with. By dint of 
tourniquets around the upper lip, various refractory ani- 
mals were finally subdued, and the string at last got 
started. I thought the facial expressions of some of the 
animals most ludicrous. They looked demure, or mis- 
chievous, or taunting. Horses must have a sense of 
humor, or they couldn't laugh, as they so evidently do, 
at the beings who torture them so. 

Yesterday we paid a visit to a revolutionary prison. 
The building is six hundred years old. We saw the 
place where the prisoners had been killed, etc., etc. The 
roof had long since fallen in, and ferns were growing 
on the rocks of the balcony. We climbed still higher, 
and saw a group of German prisoners. The French 
peasant woman who was showing us these sights was 
much impressed with these Germans' "taking off all their 
clothes, even in cold weather, and washing themselves 
all over." The stone walls of this prison are very high, 
and, ordinarily speaking, would be impossible to scale. 

The Red Cross canteen at St. Brieux will be one of 
my most delightful and sunny memories. They enter- 
tained us for three meals, and absolutely would not accept 
any remuneration. They said that it is a joy, occasionally 
to meet an American woman. Even they feel it, you see. 
They are as fine a set of women as I have ever met— 
wholesome, cheery, sweet-tempered, poised. Their most 
spectacular performance is the regular supplying of troop 
trains, going through to Brest, with coffee and sandwiches. 



44 A «'Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

Once they served fifteen hundred in thirteen minutes. 
Sometimes the strain has been so great that several have 
fainted. They talked as if the whole thing were simply 
one glorious good time. But we knew better. After- 
wards, we heard some details from a Y man. 

But this supplying of troop trains is, to my mind, 
the least part of their work, judging from the standpoint 
of actual good done. There are about one hundred soldiers 
in this town, sent here as a punishment for hard drinking 
— at least, that is true of most of them. Before this 
canteen came, they were gloomy, absolutely without amuse- 
ment, and felt marooned and desolate. Now, a most de- 
lightful spot of sunshine has been provided for them, and 
they are not drinking at all. A good many of them loaf 
around the canteen most of the day, ostensibly to help. 
And they really are a tremendous help in the regular 
canteen duties. But now a feminine home influence is 
being provided, which is keeping them straight. When 
we walked in, the day we arrived, at three in the afternoon, 
having eaten nothing since breakfast, these women treated 
us like long lost friends. 

I am reminded of a most attractive Y. W. C. A. 
waiting room, near St. Nazaire, with a beautiful big fire- 
place and a piano-. There we talked to a most interesting 
woman, head of certain Red Cross departments. She has 
lived in France for twenty-one years, and loves the country 
and people. On August 2, 19 14, she entered the French 
Red Cross. Since then she has been continually engaged 
in one kind or another of absorbing activity. At one time 
she had seventeen thousand refugees under her care, and 
she bought hospitals, factories, etc. She told of the per- 
fect orgies of work she had undergone during "flu" con- 
ditions, some six months ago, where she worked like a 
slave for five days, with her own temperature at 104. 
Out of three hundred and six cases she lost but one. As 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 45 



I understand it, all these people had for doctor and nurse, 
onlv herself and another woman. She told of the poor 
little children, whose fathers and mothers had been killed 
before their eyes, and they themselves driven out into 
the fields to starve ; of how their little minds had become 
affected, and the abject terror with which they would 
watch everyone. She talked of the children who, born 
shortly before, or during this war, had known no happi- 
ness, nothing but sorrow, and of the car-loads of toys 
she was able to dispense to them. She is a fine type 
of woman, with a clear, keen, intelligent eye, and a force- 
ful and decisive manner which at once impresses you with 
her efficiency. We talked with her for about an hour, 
while waiting for our 'bus. 

Brest, Feb. i8. — Yesterday I saw three more pathetic 
cases of drunkenness. Two were sailors, just boys, one 
of whom had a foolish grin on his face, and the other 
inclined to be quarrelsome. The third was a soldier, who 
is said to have been a very wonderful pianist, and he 
has gone completely to pieces. They all came into Y 
headquarters. I suppose it is really remarkable one does 
not see more of it, under the circumstances. 

As to health: when I contrast the way I am living, 
and the way I live at home ! Much of my day is neces- 
sarily spent in bad air. I am continually with people who 
have colds, etc. However, I don't come into contact with 
flu. In St. Nazaire, in our hospital work, we did some 
little entertaining in flu wards, but aside from that, so 
far as I know, I have not met it in more than two in- 
dividuals. I am certainly having an entertaining time, 
and if little vexations come up, that is merely some- 
thing to overcome. I have been far freer from them than 
many people. * * * Today, while I was in the Y rest 
rooms (it is warm there), reading a very entertaining 



46 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

book on the selection and care of horses, a most attrac- 
tive and exceedingly young first lieutenant came up and 
asked me — me, mind you — about some lace he wanted to 
buy as presents to take home. He had heard that some 
woman had them to sell, and wondered what I knew 
about it. I told him the truth, which was that I knew 
nothing about the woman, and nothing about the laces, 
but wished him success. So after a short time he re- 
turned with four pieces, three of very elaborate Irish 
crochet and one of Brittany lace. He had paid $25, and 
wanted to know whether they were worth it. I admired 
them, and told him I thought they were. They really 
were beautiful pieces, and he wondered which he had 
better give to his girl. It seemed that there was nothing 
settled between them yet, and another man was taking 
her shawls and things. He was such a boy, and such a 
dear, I hope he'll get the girl, if she is worthy. He ex- 
pects to go home right away. 

I had an interesting walk this morning. There is an 
old chateau here, looking very big, grim and forbidding. 
They say the walls are fourteen feet thick. A very fine 
stone wall is built out from the chateau, and along this 
runs a boulevard, wide and handsome. Brest is hilly and 
very picturesque. It is paved with Belgian blocks, so one 
doesn't get so muddy as in St. Nazaire. And while there 
are an awful lot of Americans here, it does not seem to 
be so possessed by them as every other place we have 
visited, except Paris. There are still quite a few French- 
men visible. Many ships are lying in the beautiful harbor. 



Feb. 19. — Last evening we were taken in a Dodge 
for a nice, long ride to a hospital, where we gave a pro- 
gram. There was so much noise that it was hard work, 
and there was a dog. It was a very attractive fox terrier 
that escaped from one of the boys on the front seat, and 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 47 



trotted up on the platform. Both times I was the "goat." 
The first time I was giving a reading, and he came con- 
fidently and nuzzled up to me. I could feel his little 
nose tickling my ankles. Of course, it roused some merri- 
ment. If I had been giving something comic, I might 
have stopped and petted the dog. But as it was, I kept 
right on, and he eventually left. Again, when I was 
giving a piano number, I noticed considerable commotion, 
and when I turned around, here was the dog again. 

After the program, we were requested to give a short 
program in an oflficers' hut, close by. We each did some- 
thing. In the meantime, you can imagine my surprise 
when a young fellow came up behind the scenes. His 
name was Tuttle, and he had lived in Portland, Oregon, 
for sixteen years. He now lives in California. * * * 
This morning I went for another long walk. The 
weather is something wonderful, sunny, still, and rather 
warm. I was gone about three hours. Coming back, as 
I was getting into town, I lost my way, and was very 
glad I did. I got into a perfect maze of old-world streets, 
narrow and winding, went down some stairs and through 
an archway perhaps twenty feet thick, that was as pic- 
turesque as anything I ever saw. Brest is quite a large 
place, and very hilly. Streets are sometimes exceedingly 
steep, and sometimes are merely long flights of stairs. 
One can never get seriously lost, because there is always 
an S. P. or M. P. to show the way. I wish we could 
continue to have weather like this, and I shouldn't ask 
any more of fate. But I presume it will soon begin to 
rain. * * * I have been meeting the greatest number 
of Southern people here. It seems as if every person I 
meet is either from the South or from New York. 

The other day I went to the Brest art gallery. I 
have heard it called a good one, but I came away vastly 
unimpressed. I saw nothing that was not modern, and 



48 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

the names were such as I had never heard of before. 
Some lovely pictures, of course, but only one or two that 
seemed to my novice's eye to have any claim to great- 
ness. 



Brest, March 7. — Yesterday was a perfectly wonder- 
ful day, and I had two walks. In the morning nothing 
particular happened. But in the afternoon I was standing 
by a high wall, looking on the traffic below me. The 
harbor looked very beautiful ; the houses were picked out 
by the sunlight ; on the water were streaks of green and 
lavender, and little fishing boats with dark red sails, lean- 
ing gracefully away from the light breeze. Down below 
was an M. P. directing trafific. That was supposed to 
be his entire job, but a Negro claimed his attention, and 
for ten minutes I had an interesting pantomime to watch. 
The darky was drunk. Apparently the M. P. had told 
him to sit down on a pile of scrap iron and wait. But 
the darky tried to amble off in a casual manner ; and 
the harried M. P. would have to make frequent dashes 
for him, between his directions to trucks, touring-cars 
and motorcycles. It was highly amusing to watch the 
darky, who seemed to want to argue the situation, and 
the M. P., who with each succeeding minute became 
more wrathful. He had, evidently, sent word to police 
headquarters by one of the machines, and after the afore- 
said ten minutes a patrol came and removed the darky. 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 49 



CHAPTER V 

Social life of Y entertainer — Teas at St. Nazaire and elsewhere 
— Leave at Trez-Hir — Vacation joys — Some of my nights in France 
— Dancing — Walk to French fortress — Various characters encoun- 
tered — Picturesque entertainments of the winter — The silver slippers 
and the velvet cloak — Hotels in France — Places where we have per- 
formed — Polish soldiers — Scenery of France — Opportunities for 
meeting people — Chaplain in Ordinary to the King of England — 
Young Southern gentleman — His knowledge of French society — The 
German submarine — Day among the rocks and caves — Piano with 
faulty pedal — Comparison of audiences in huts of the Y and the 
K. of C. — Playing to music lover whose wife had studied in Dresden 
— Prohibition — Reflections on the future of the A. E. F. 



w 



I REST, March 8. — A "Y" entertainer over here has a 
great deal of social life. It is partly what she is sent 
over for. I have indeed heen having a gay and giddy 
time lately : music with one bunch of boys, walks with an- 
other lot, entertaining twice a day, and dancing to close 
with. It is evidently the object of the Y to provide the men, 
in their inaction and ennui and their universal and deadly 
homesickness, not only with entertaining programs, but 
also with the society of good women. I have been 
dancing and joining in teas and long walks, as well as 
in parlor quoits and billiards, and I have had an oc- 
casional hand at bridge, explaining "the down and out 
echo," "the rule of eleven," etc., to youths who have good 
card heads. I also lend a sympathetic ear to the out- 
pouring of their troubles ; and have been asked to pass 
judgment on the selection of gifts for the sweethearts at 
home. 

There is a Red Cross rest room near here ; a most 
delightful place, large, well decorated, with a most homey 
atmosphere. There is a tea given there every Thursday 
by the head of this Red Cross division. This tea is for 
soldiers and sailors, as well as for our women ; and 
there is a grand piano there that it is a joy to play on. 

And, speaking of teas : at St. Nazaire during the 
winter, Miss S. and I had two cozy rooms over a lace 
shop, where on Sunday afternoons we used to have tea 



50 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

for such friends in the uniform, both men and women, 
as our Httle salon would hold. We had a tiny fire-place, 
ornamental, if not useful ; two balconies, one window, 
two French doors, and a view of the ocean ; we also 
had music late every afternoon, by the American band on 
the square below\ We gave tea, and a warm welcome, 
and for the rest, whatever came handy. The less said 
about the style of these teas the better. Once we had tea, 
and pie ! This was one of our ways of trying to cheer 
homesick boys. 

Various fine French hotels have been taken over, with 
all their luxury and beauty, as Y. M. C. A. rest places 
for tired men. One such is at Trez-Hir, on the western 
coast. The flowers there and the artistic decorations are 
verv lovelv. I have been there several times. 



Trez-Hir, March 15. — This is the spot in all France 
that is nearest home. It also commands a view of all 
the ships, going both ways. On March 13th I had the 
stirring sight of the big convoy, escorting President Wilson 
back to France. I am having my leave here, of more 
than a week. Today I have been having vacation joys. 
The meals out here are wonderful ; and, furthermore, I 
have a wonderful room, alone, with two big beds, and 
four windows ; and I also have a wonderful view of the 
ocean. Yesterday it was marvelous : shades of green, blue 
and royal purple ; little brown velvet sailing boats, purple 
hills, white clouds in a blue sky. Last night I opened 
three of my windows, and after studying the moonlight 
on the water, making the sand look like snow, I went 
to bed, and for eight hours slept the sleep of the just. 

For three nights my sleep had been sketchy : two nights 
sitting up in a train, and one night on a mattress, with 
no pillow except a blanket, no sheets, and all my clothes 
on. This, because I was unlucky enough to be obliged, 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 51 

in peace conference time, to spend a single night in Paris. 
So great was the congestion in the hotels that this mat- 
tress, in the Y. W. C. A. hostess house, in a dormitory 
for ten, was all there was to be had. And at that, I 
fared better than my first night in Paris, just before the 
signing of the armistice. Then I was one of thirty girls 
to sleep in our steamer rugs, on the floor of a hotel par- 
lor. It was a lark, and I slept amazingly, considering. 

Since extremes meet, in Paris as in the rest of the 
world, the next day my room mate and I were given 
a room where we stayed for several weeks. It had in- 
deed its drawbacks, having hot running water, to be sure, 
but no other form of heat, while there was ice in the 
fountains outside. But it did have large spaces and three 
windows and two enormous beds, and much gorgeousness 
in the way of furniture. There were many mirrors, and 
hangings and bed draperies of satin. And when we were 
too cold we could always look at ourselves in the mirrors. 

This afternoon the weather has been as wonderful as 
my meals, my room and my view. I played four pieces 
to a very whist and appreciative audience, and now I 
am dressed, awaiting the Saturday evening concert and 
dance, which is a feature of Trez-Hir. They always pre- 
pare for seventy-five. 

There is a French girl of eighteen who acts as hostess 
here ; and she makes an amazingly good one. She is 
perfectly impartial, treats all the soldiers and sailors alike, 
and is very charming and very clever. * * * Two Y 
men and I had a walk of nearly ten miles yesterday. We 
started to follow the coast line to a certain promontory, 
but before reaching it we became entangled in some very 
modern fortifications. Mr. F., who has been in all sorts 
of wars : Cuban, Boer, and others, knew enough not to 
monkey around where he wasn't wanted. Not until the 
other man saw a guard was Mr. F. willing to go in. 



52 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

We went along for about a quarter of a mile, the guard 
meanwhile having disappeared. Then Mr. F. and I were 
both too much worried to stay longer. But the other man 
remained, and at last came out without adventure. Mr. 
F. said several times that I had been where he could 
swear no other Y girl had ever gone. Of course, I saw 
many things and didn't know what I was seeing. But 
there were eight 8-inch guns, apparently in fine condition, 
which could have been completely ruined in two minutes ; 
and many shells by each gun, unlocked ammunition dumps, 
and not a sign of a guard. It was most peculiar. After 
all, peace is not yet signed. We entered the other fort 
by a key, left hanging where any dunce could get it. If 
that is the way French fortifications were guarded before 
the war, no wonder Germany walked through as she did. 

I like this Mr. F. He makes maps for our govern- 
ment, and inspects the construction of big steel buildings. 
He has traveled all over the globe, and expects soon to 
be sent to Siam. He is an intensely interesting talker, and 
seems to have enjoyed his life exceedingly. 

I have not seen President Wilson. You know how I 
am about celebrities. I did not take the trouble to see 
King George, when he and I were in Paris. I only saw 
King Albert by chance. 

This morning when the man had finished my shampoo, 
he said *'Good-night." An amusing variation of the 
eternal "Good-bye" one hears from all the children. 

Speaking of King George, a naval officer on the train 
was telling an amusing tale. I have forgotten all the 
attendant circumstances ; perhaps the King was inspecting 
an American ship. But, anyway, a big American sailor 
walked up and said, in a friendly, not an impertinent 
fashion, 'T always wanted to shake hands with a King — 
put 'er there," and the King, being an Englishman and 
a good sport, "put 'er there." 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 53 

This case has come to my notice. A young non-com 
had lost his stripes through drink. At home, he said, 
he had always been a social drinker, and had never 
thought much about religion. But having seen what he 
had seen at the front, he was going home to work for 
prohibition the rest of his life. He also said that every 
man that had been to the front, whether he would admit 
it or not, had learned to pray. It was true of them 
all. 

And another case : this boy was one of those born 
comedians, whose chief aim in life seems to be to act 
like a congenital idiot. He was so loud about it that 
frowning disapproval was written on the faces of al) 
the men around. It usually takes a lot to disturb them. 
He acted tough, and at first I didn't like him. But, aftei 
a time, we fell to talking about front-line experiences, 
It is a good thing I am not sensitive, or some of the 
tales these boys tell would haunt me forever. They 
are out before one could stop them, if one wished. But 
I don't wish to do so. Because, when they have lived 
through them, I should be very lily-livered if I weren't 
able to listen to them. They never tell them just for the 
sake of telling horrors. It is always to point a moral. 

This tough youth had been through it all ; and, perched 
on the arm of a chair, after his effervescing, he came 
down to serious things. And with his beautiful brown 
eyes gazing earnestly into mine, he told of what he had 
been through, and what he had gained from it. And this 
was the way he ended : "How I ever got out of ii 
alive is a mystery. Men killed all around me, and I 
never got a scratch. I wasn't worth it, God knows. And 
it was no goodness of mine that brought me through. 
It was my mother's and father's prayers that did it. If 
I had lived up to all my mother wanted me to be, I'd 



54 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

be a lot better fellow than I am. But I know it was 
just their prayers that saved me." 

All this, mind you, to two people on whom he had 
never laid eyes before, and before a third youth who 
looked "hardboiled," but who, instead of making fun of 
him, as he would doubtless have done three years ago, 
agreed with him. 

Then the man at the head of the entertainment work 
in Paris has told me his problems, and troubles, at 
length, together with a part of his history. He was 
overworking, and knew it, and was afraid his health would 
fail. And the other evening I was alone in the library, 
by a bright fire, and a Y man, an utter stranger, came 
to me and poured out his story. It was a particularly 
pathetic thing to see a man of his sort so sunk in the 
very dregs of self-pity. He was particularly well set up, 
with a fresh skin and clear eye. and had impressed me 
as being a forceful, self-reliant type. He had been a 
teacher of psychology at home, and was now in great 
need of human sympathy. He was perhaps thirty-five 
years of age. At first, in France, he had overworked, 
going fourteen months with no rest. Then he had had 
the influenza and pneumonia ; then insomnia and deep 
despondency ; he had been crushed by the censure of the 
Y. M. C. A., and at last had taken to drink. His memory 
and mental concentration were now impaired. If a man 
of his sort had come to such a pass, one may well ask, 
"How has it been with the young doughboy?" And one 
also sees that listening to these stories is not the easiest 
thing a Y girl has to do. 

As I look back on them. I realize that some of the enter- 
tainments I have attended during the winter have been most 
picturesque. There was the time, on Christmas eve, when 
our Victory Trio, arriving to give our program, found 
ourselves in a huge building, of iron, glass and cement. 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 55 



usually devoted to the testing of auto trucks. It contained 
a crowd of about four thousand of our men, with a 
sprinkling of French girls. As we were late (a common 
occurrence with us, through no fault of our own), danc- 
ing had already begun. Most of the men were dancing 
with other men, or were just looking on. After two or 
three musical numbers, Miss S. and I, the only American 
women present, came down from the platform and 
mingled in the fray. My first partner was a graduate 
of the University of Oregon, where I had given a program 
less than a year ago. And the band was playing "The 
Stars and Stripes Forever." 

Then, shortly before New Year's, Miss S. and I at- 
tended a dinner of fourteen covers, the guests being seven 
Y girls and six non-commissioned officers. The host, a 
sergeant, who was from Detroit, had spared no money 
on this banquet, and in spite of the famine prices gave 
us as elaborate a menu as he would have ordered before 
the war. Each guest had flowers and a souvenir, mine 
being something in oxydized silver. There were also 
several wines, including champagne. The ladies threw 
their influence against wine in the army by leaving theirs 
untasted. 

And here is another one of the most rarely delightful 
times I have had. After our performance, we were asked 
to stay to a little party. The curtain was let down, shut- 
ting ofT the main body of the house, a candle was shaved 
up and dropped around on the stage floor, all the scenery 
was moved back, and we settled ourselves to a dance. There 
were eight or ten couples, canteen girls and their particular 
friends among the boys, mostly sergeants and corporals. 
One of them was the young fellow from Detroit who en- 
tertained us so elegantly just before New Year's. We had 
a few musical numbers. After the dance we went to a 
back-room and had a marvelous spread. Each guest had 



56 A «'Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

a bunch of violets, and a rose, in a lovely little bouquet. 
We had hot buttered toast, lettuce leaves with omelette 
and jelly, coffee and two kinds of fudge. The young fellow 
who waited on the table was one of the hosts ; and he is 
also said to own three hotels in San Francisco. The fudge 
was made by a Y secretary, now stationed at this hut. 

After one of our performances in an officers' mess 
kitchen we had another little spread. The officers opened 
cans of sardines and jam, had on the table bread and hard- 
tack, and served fine coffee in huge mess cups of tin. It 
was all very impromptu and delightful. There was one 
rift in the lute. There were many horses at this camp, 
and I had the offer of a ride. The fact that I had to 
decline it made me feel positively ill. But I had no riding 
habit. 

There was also the dinner at an officers' club. The 
invitation was of several days' standing, and so I wore my 
best white cloth gown, and white satin slippers. Arriving, 
I felt as conspicuous as a camel. The other ladies had 
sensibly worn their uniforms. The food was indeed de- 
licious, and the menu elaborate. But we were in a mess 
hall with earthen floor and board seats, and the table 
service was of any old thing that came handy, even 
aluminum and tin. The style at this feast consisted in the 
music — by German prisoners. For me, my costume was 
the onlv thorn to the rose. 

And here I may record the story of the silver slippers 
and the velvet cloak. They both belonged to Miss S, my 
room-mate, and the soprano of our trio. Her lovely voice 
was trained in Chicago and New York. She is a Southern 
woman, of charming and magnetic personality. To en- 
hance all this, she brought with her three trunks full of 
lovely clothes. And as she has gone about in France, she 
has been in great luck if one of the trunks has not al- 
wavs been missing. Furthermore, the ladv's maid to 



A «'Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 57 

which she must have been accustomed at home, did not 
come with her to France. So Miss S. was sometimes in 
trouble. As to the silver slippers, these are what she had 
to walk home in, high heels and all, one winter's night, 
because the little Ford that had taken us to the place 
where we gave our program, never came back any more. 
I had changed my slippers for shoes, and did not object 
to the walk in the least. 

And the lovely velvet cloak and big picture hat, witli 
no hat pin, were what Miss S. w^ore one evening, expect- 
ing that a covered 'bus would be sent for us, as indeed 
was sometimes done. But on this particular night, when 
it was raining gustily, what appeared was again a little 
Ford, without side curtains. When we reached our desti- 
nation, ten or twelve miles away. Miss S. was thoroughly 
chilled, and felt that her clothes were ruined. And, 
after all, the sacrifice had been in vain, for the electricity 
in the hall was off, and the only light came from a few 
candles. The way she went ahead and sang was one of 
the pluckiest things I ever saw. But her voice almost 
broke in the first number, she was feeling so discouraged. 
On the way home our car broke down, and we had to wait 
an hour for another. 



In thk North of France, March i6. — I am having 
a far better time than Miss S. today ; she is down and 
out, exhausted and disgusted. This place is none too clean, 
and she is acutely affected by dirt. But I am feeling 
fine. One is much happier if one ignores what one can't 
help. I am not sure my bed has not been slept in before. 
But, at any rate, my top sheet has a pair of embroidered 
initials that any American housewife would be proud to 
own, and the sheet is of heavy linen, double hand hem- 
stitched. 

As to linen sheets, by the way, they can be the very 



58 A <<Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

coldest things I have ever felt in my life ; when on a 
wintry night in France we have been brought home at 
high speed in an open car, and have gone to bed in a cold 
room, which is the rule in France in winter. Hotels form 
a subject of lively interest to most travelers. In the 
north of France they may be very primitive. In the 
south one may find them very luxurious. In one little 
village of two or three hundred inhabitants, our inn had 
big cuts of meat hung up on the first floor, and one chicken 
hanging head downward, to show us what we were not to 
have. All these were exposed to the air and dust. The 
cooking was done on a big hearth, eked out by a small 
range. 

And in another village my room on the second floor 
had a washbowl about the size of a big soup plate. But 
the room had an attractive air of cleanliness, with its white- 
washed, sloping ceiling, from which a linen canopy was 
draped over the bed. This canopy, like the curtains at 
the windows, was of fine linen, trimmed with yards and 
yards of rich lace, crocheted in an unusual pattern. The 
walls of this inn were of stone, several feet thick. As 
to the cookery, France is always France. These little inns 
served very respectable dinners, beginning with soup and 
ending with a sort of tart, or with a soft cheese. One 
peculiarity was the serving of an egg in the middle of 
the meal, either fried or boiled. 

At one town my room was in a rambling, weird build- 
ing, reminding one of Bleak House in Dickens. One en- 
tered from the street, passed a stairway and traversed a 
passage ; then passed through a door to an outer way, open 
to all the rains and winds of heaven. Here one turned 
several corners, ascended seven or eight steps, and at last 
reached the stairs that led to my room. This hotel, next 
to the Y headquarters, was nevertheless just the thing for 
me. 



A <<Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 59 

The places in which our trio have given our programs 
have differed as widely as our hotels. We have performed 
in officers' clubs ; in theaters, often dismantled ; once, in 
Brittany, in a lovely stone chapel holding about looo, con- 
nected with a boys' school. The town hall has been 
the place, sometimes, with the townspeople free to come ; 
and once, in Paris, we gave our program in a big ball- 
room, in a handsome private residence, to about a hundred 
of our men, just out of the hospital. This occasion was 
connected, in a way, with the King of England. Because 
he happened to be in Paris that day, our taxi was blocked 
by the parade, and we were dumped out in the rain, took 
the subway under the parade, and made the best of our 
way to the Stern residence. The next day, Miss S. pro- 
duced her little iron, heated it at my tiny fire-place, a lot 
of papers were laid on the table, and the two concert 
dresses were pressed. 

We have performed in mess halls, as well as in hos- 
pital wards, the last being the very hardest kind of pro- 
gram work that I have ever done. 

Once, in Paris, we gave a program in a little chateau 
of Isadora Duncan's, given by her to be used as a hos- 
pital for gas patients. And here, in the north of France, 
we have performed to Polish soldiers, whose behavior has 
been most decorous ; no talking or laughing, or smoking, 
and the closest attention given to music that did not appeal 
to some of our American soldiers. Our men usually 
smoke, and all my clothes are redolent of tobacco. 

We have appeared in the huts of the Knights of Co- 
lumbus, as well as in our own huts. 

As to the Poles, it seems very peculiar to have the 
audience in uniforms of blue, instead of olive drab. One 
was startled every time one looked. Compared to our 
men, they are amazingly polite and ceremonious. There 
is no laughing or talking or smoking, as I have said ; 



60 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

neither do they seem to bathe, judging from the odors 
that have assailed my nostrils. 

The Y huts are often capable of holding seven or eight 
hundred ; the floor does not slope, and the acoustics may 
be poor ; so that men on the back seat, unable to see or 
to hear, may be held somewhat excusable for inattention. 
It has even been found, and with less excuse, in the boxes 
at the Metropolitan Opera House. But the Y secretary 
is averse to calling the men to order, unless the need is 
pronounced. 

I have had great joy in the scenery of France, in the 
rain and in the sunshine, and also in most marvelous 
moonlight. There is the flora, too, and there are the cattle 
in the fields. One can not over emphasize the beauty of 
the harbor at Brest, especially under the stars, when many 
brilliantly illuminated ships are sending bright paths across 
the water. 

For a short time, on the western coast, I was in a lit- 
tle fishing village, containing the summer cottages of rich 
people. In the big hotel, frequented by the wealthy from 
all over France, I had the luxury of a fine room to my- 
self. It had a balcony and French doors. I watched the 
view from its windows : the splendid surf in the moonlight, 
played upon by the rays from two lighthouses ; and, in the 
earlv morning, the sheet of silver, on which the fishing 
smacks poised like great butterflies, with their wings of 
velvety reds and blues, were just slipping out to sea. 

When our headquarters were in Nantes, the city so rich 
in historic associations, many of my associates voted the 
surrounding country flat and uninteresting. But it re- 
minded me of the Fens of England, about Ely Cathedral, 
pictures of which look down on the dining table, at home. 
With the stone walls, the windmills, the quaint villages, 
the daintv church spires, the rounded trees and the soft 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 61 

blue distances, these peaceful views can never be any- 
thing but very beautiful to me. 

The fine library and good art gallery, in the old corn 
market and cloth market; and the old Chateau, where 
Anne of Brittany was married to Louis XII of France ; 
as well as the underground dungeons of the Chateau — of 
all these I saw less than some people ; but I saw much 
more of the surrounding country than many. In the 
cathedral I was impressed with the glory of light and 
color, in the celebration of mass. I was deeply interested 
in the extensive Druidical remains at Carnac, as well 
known to archeologists as those at the English Stone- 
henge. 

As an example of my great opportunities for meeting 
all kinds of people, take this case. One day in Brittany, 
we were bowling along over fine French roads, kept up 
by German prisoners, in a little American Ford. It was 
evident that a fellow passenger was a most unusual talker. 
He gave the history of the Edict of Nantes, and of other 
things connected with the region ; and a lecture, no less, 
on the racial development of the British Isles. It came 
out that he was a learned professor in the University of 
Edinburgh, as well as chaplain in ordinarv to the English 
King. He was enthusiastic over the type of American sol- 
diers whom he had been addressing. 



Brest, March 17. — While I was writing this last, I 
was struggling against the temptation to which I finally 
succumbed. It was 9:30 and I had come into my room 
with the purpose of writing a little, and then going to 
bed. But as I wrote by my open window, I heard strains 
of piano music, and the piano was being played remarkably 
well. The first thing that attracted my attention was the 
last page of my Chopin Ballade ; and then came other and 
fascinating passages. I could finally resist no longer. So 



62 A «'Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

I put out my light, locked my door, descended my stairs, 
and went into Y headquarters just next door. I had been 
correct in my surmises. The player was a Southern boy, 
who had been one of my audience the night before, when 
I played better than I have done for many months, per- 
haps years. The fresh and understanding enthusiasm of 
the small and delightful audience had l>een to me like 
wine. 

This young Southerner (and I never knew there were 
so many of them as I have been meeting lately) is really 
remarkably good as a player, although he has taken no 
lessons since he was twelve years old. He is a de- 
lightful personality, absolutely lacking in self-consciousness, 
very sweet and unspoiled, and with a background of much 
culture and many traditions. He belongs to a soldier 
entertainment unit of nine. * * * Last evening, after 
our entertaining was over, we met again and had another 
feast of music. He played for me a new thing he had 
just found, with which I was much struck, and which I 
shall get before I come home. Then I played and we 
both talked a lot, to the accompanying click of billiard balls 
at our very elbows. A lively game was in progress, 
and there was hardly room for all of us. 

To continue about this Southern boy : no one can den\ 
that our dear country has its faults, as well as its virtues. 
They are both of them the attributes of youth : the breezy 
friendliness, which at its worst deteriorates into pushing 
impudence : the tremendous energy, which sometimes 
manifests itself in restlessness and lack of poise ; and the 
splendid self-confidence, which may degenerate into 
blatant egotism. These will cease to be national 
faults, perhaps, as our country grows old. And, in the 
meantime, it seems an excellent thing that there are por- 
tions of our southland where old-world traditions have been 
kept in their finest flower, among them the qualities that 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 63 

go to the making of a gentleman. This young non-com 
is just that. He speaks fluent French, and this, together 
with his music, has given him the entree to various French 

homes of the better class. 

***** 

This morning, when I was waiting in headquarters 
for the machine to take us to the station, I heard the 
Chopin Berceuse. I walked nearly up to the piano where 
young H. was playing. I hadn't the heart to disturb 
him, he was working with such concentration, and so I 
walked away again. He is working it up to play for 
me on our return to Brest, bless his heart. 

He has been associating with all sorts of high-toned 
French people. There is a certain chateau near Brest, the 
residence of a French Colonel, who is a count, I believe. 
They have generals as their guests. Young H. has been 
entertained there at various times, and yesterday after- 
noon he played for the wedding of the daughter of the 
house. The wedding occurred in a chapel connected with 
the chateau. I am not clear as to the details. 

He says he finds the older French women more attrac- 
tive than the girls. They are more natural. To be comme 
il faut, a French girl must be demure, so utterly sup- 
pressed, that considering the French temperament, she is 
very unnatural. After marriage, she has more liberty to 
behave as she pleases. The only French girl he has ever 
known who displayed the slightest particle of American 
"pep"' was despaired of by her aunt, and dubbed uncon- 
trollable. This boy, though only a non-com, as I have 
said, is seeing the better class of French society. It is de- 
plorable that so few of our army have this opportunity. 
Young H. calls it good, but still stands very loyal to 
American society. 

And to go on about Southerners : today I was talking to 
a private from Louisiana. He spoke French before he 



64 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

came over, and enjoys French people, by whom he is fre- 
quently taken for a Frenchman. He has a French name, 
and is undoubtedly of French extraction. I was inter- 
ested in his volunteering the information, quite unsolicited, 
and apropos of nothing in particular, that he wouldn't 
marry a French girl. He was rather inarticulate, as so 
many people are, and couldn't tell just why. It just didn't 
appeal to him. 

I am indebted to this adorable Southern boy, young 
H., for an exciting adventure. He succeeded in getting 
permission from the Prefect of Police in Brest to visit a 
German submarine ; then he took me and another friend 
along. The first guard let us through ; the second pro- 
tested, but finally let us all through on the one pass. So 
I have been where many of the A. E. F. have longed to 
go, but where very few have been. We went out to the 
submarine on a series of floats. When we came to a gap, 
I had to cross it by a running jump. And while the two 
boys, both Southerners, tried at first to smooth the path 
for the lady of the party, it soon became a case of each 
person taking care of himself. To get into the submarine 
we had to descend through a man-hole (about the size of 
a man-hole in the street, or smaller), down a perfectly per- 
pendicular ladder, for about ten feet. The interior was 
complex and crowded to the nth degree. I should have 
understood better what I was seeing if I had known more 
of machinery. I saw the place at the end where the tor- 
pedoes were sent out into the water, and saw the torpedoes 
there. 

Near the subs the water is covered with oil. The color 
combinations, reds, browns, yellows, blues, are marvelous. 
One could study just those effects indefinitely. They form 
a lovely pattern of changing arabesques on the water. I 
got one small grease spot on the front of my uniform. 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 65 

Brest, March 18. — Today I had a day that will long 
live in my memory. In weather it was one of the most 
beautiful days I have ever seen. I had a beautiful walk 
of two or three miles. We went to an old ruined church 
(Gothic) of the 13th century. The roof was almost en- 
tirely gone, and green grass was growing around the mossy 
and weather-beaten columns of the nave. I found it won- 
derfully beautiful, and most impressive. And then we had 
the sort of thing that fills my soul with joy. It is a 
rocky coast, and for about two hours we clambered around 
over difficult rocks. It was low tide, and we went out 
to the wreck of an old tug boat. We went into innumer- 
able caves, all of them exquisitely beautiful. One large 
cave had an arched vaulting, and the most wonderful 
pastel shadings of lavender and green. And the pools had the 
most amazing effects, whether from the stones, sea life, 
or vegetation, I don't know. One had all the colors of 
the rainbow, mingled as in some exquisite piece of oriental 
mosaic. From one cave, with colorings of green and deep 
velvety red, we had a view of the ocean, through a chasm 
in the rocks, bridged by a picturesque arch of old masonry. 
It was very beautiful. I had one of the most rarely de- 
lightful times I have ever had. And now, after a day 
of peerless blue sky, lavender hills, and blue-green water, 
it is raining again. It has been a day that will long live 
in my memory as one of the most perfect I have ever 
spent, every moment a joy, and not one thing to mar it. 
I shouldn't want to go again, unless I had as pleasant com- 
panions. We were an ideal company, of one Y girl and 
seven young soldiers and sailors. 

On the way back to Brest I had the escort of a fine 
sailor lad, with whom I became quite chummy, although 
we had not met before that da\". When we reached the 
tram, he insisted so masterfully on buying my ticket 
(something under two francs) that there was no possi- 



66 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

bility of my declining. And his further tribute to Amer- 
ican womanhood was the gift of a fine box of chocolates. 
He was a lad of only nineteen, as full of youthful spirits as 
anyone I ever saw, and really a dear. Two months ago 
he had helped to save four or five people from a wreck. 

Later. — Today it rained hard, but I reallv enjoyed it, 
the air was so fine and the coloring brought out in the 
water so wonderful. On this rocky coast, the breakers 
dash one hundred feet or more up the cliffs, where I 
had a delightful walk of nearly three hours. When a 
wave rolled in, the foam would be caught by the wind 
up to the top of the cliffs, and fly across the land for hun- 
dreds of yards. I saw two battleships putting out to sea. 
I passed ruined stone houses, and crossed desolate moors, 
covered with stunted gorse and heather. The sun occasion- 
ally shone out, creating streaks of green, and yellow, and 
purple, above the great waves rolling in, unhurried, ma- 
jestic, inevitable, and curling over in a delicate shade of 
green. It was certainly something to create one anew. I 
met only a few peasants, and some children. Most of the 
time I was quite alone, with the sky, the wind, the rain, 
and the sea. 



Brest, March 20. — In our audience last night, one very 
funny thing happened. The piano was a good one, but 
had one fault, the pedal kept getting unhinged. A young 
fellow set it right for me just before our performance 
began. It lasted for about half of the program, and then 
I had to get hold of him once more, anl he fixed it up 
again. Later on a place came where I was not using the 
pedal. This boy was on the platform, right next the 
piano, with his legs swinging over the edge, and I sup- 
pose he thought it sounded rather thin. So as I was 
playing, I saw his head and shoulders come around the 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 67 

corner of the piano, and his hand reach out for the pedal. 
I took my foot away, kept on playing-, and managed to 
keep a straight face, which was not easy. He arranged 
things to his satisfaction, and then I put my foot back 
again. Truly, after I return to civilized life, nothing 
that could ever happen on a concert platform should be 
able to confuse me. 

When we came home, I went into Y headquarters 
with two boxes of candy that had been given me (each 
lady had been presented with a big box of chocolates and 
a box of Jordan almonds) and I had a pleasant time 
w'ith my particular set of boys. We danced and finished 
up the two boxes of candy. 

Last evening's performance was in a Knights of Colum- 
bus hut, with a very attentive and well-behaved audience. 
The Y men will let the disorder get rather dreadful be- 
fore interfering, and then are not so peremptory as the 
K. of C. secretary, who rises and shouts "Order!" when 
anything approaching disorder occurs. I think the Y men 
are right in considering the soldiers rather than the per- 
formers. 

It seems that Miss S and I are the first women en- 
tertainers who have been in this building — a very nice 
place, by the way ; and aside from a few old French 
women who come to the Sunday services, the first women 
who have entered the building, which is interesting. And 
we had a number of officers in the audience, which doesn't 
always happen. 



Brest, March 21. — As I was waiting in the Y head- 
quarters the other day, a fine-looking soldier walked up 
to me and asked for some music. I played for ten or 
fifteen minutes, and he drank it in like one parched with 
thirst. It was so long since he had heard any good music, 
he said. As I finished, he said his wife had studied two 



68 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

years in Dresden, and he had understood I had studied 
six years in Leipsic. 

One thing that has been taking my attention lately is 
prohibition. So many of the soldiers that I hear talk say 
they are sore that they were given no chance to vote on it. 
One fire-eating fellow was saying yesterday morning that 
the returning soldiers wouldn't stand for it ; there would 
be a revolution, etc. He evidently thought that the re- 
turning soldiers would all stand together. 



Brest, March 22. — Of course, every experience which 
gives us joy will cause certain regretful retrospection. 
One day, recently, as I was standing at the top of the great 
fortification wall which surrounds Brest, watching streams 
of American trafific going in all directions, two or three 
hundred feet below, it came over me very forcibly that 
when we all get home, particularly we women, who are 
being made so much of, and who must be quite wise to 
keep from being spoiled, there will come to us in after 
years a poignant wish to be back again, witli the finest 
flower of our land all around us, bound to us, and we to 
them, by those ties which only those can feel who are 
in exile. 

The spirit that sent these men over here, cheerfully and 
unflinchingly to face death in the cause of righteousness 
and justice, has given them something many of them never 
had before. With all of them it has brought near to the 
surface certain spiritual qualities, which one seldom finds 
in ordinary polite civilian life. It does not matter whether 
they went to the front or not. The big sacrifice was made 
when thev came, and they will never be the same again. 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 69 

CHAPTER M 

Paris — Many Y women coming over — Acquaintances — Congestion 
in Paris hotels — Versailles — Uniforms — Trip to Coblenz — Chateau 
Thierry — Metz station — Montabaur sceneiy — Grotesque church at 
Arenberg — Hotel in Coblenz — Melancholy waiter ex-officer in German 
army — Trouble in the billets at Montabaur — -The efficient young 
sergeant — Salvation Army canteen — Officer's story of German who 
failed to salute our flag — Russian strong man — Program in a chil- 
dren's school — Schloss "W^allendorf — Comfort of warm rooms — My 
German landlady and her gifts — Nice officers — Appreciative audience 
with uproarious manners — Dinner and supper with officers — Man- 
sion of German millionaire — Pair weather and a happy time — 
Program given alone — French aviation camp recalled — Removal to 
Neuwied — Hotel Zum Wilden Mann — Swearing — "The Oregon army 
is waiting for you" — Recalls the French experience with Simpson's 
"Beautiful Willamette" — Can't ride horse-back — Behavior of Ger- 
man officers to the Americans. 

"^II^ARIS, March 23. — After my winter's work, I do 
"jCi "°^ '^^^ Paris at all. Irritable taxies honk at me, 
^[P^ and follow me up, trying to kill me. But I go 
to bed early and I am getting back some of my 
lost vim, which I didn't realize I had lost. I only knew 
that Paris affected me most unpleasantly ; but now I no 
longer expect a violent death every time I cross the street. 
There seems little prospect of my getting away from Paris. 
I still, as of yore, spend much of my time waiting in 
different offices. 

A great number of Y women have just come over. 
Paris is overrun with them. Many of them have been 
trying for a long time to get over. On our way to Ver- 
sailles we fell in with a young woman from Tacoma, who 
thinks she heard me play there. She signed up in July, 
and has just come over. Whereas, I signed up Septem- 
ber 30, and arrived November 10. On the other hand, 
while they have seemed to rush through the entertainers, 
one that she knew was delayed as long as she was. And 
so many girls who signed up for canteen work have been 
transferred, that a girl will not admit she can play the 
piano at all, if she really wants to do canteen work. It 
seems that not a single canteen girl can be got to say she 
knows what a piano is for. 



70 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

It is amazing how many old acquaintances one meets 
in Paris. The other day I met a Red Cross girl who 
came over on my boat. She has been all this time in 
Paris. She is doing office work under rather disagree- 
able conditions. The man over her is not a gentleman, 
and she has quite a time. 

Another thing that interests me is the large number 
of Knights of Columbus men who take their meals in the 
Y cafeterias. It is an undeniable fact that a large part 
of the Y criticism has had its inception in the K. C. ranks. 
It seems rather poor taste for these men to reap the 
benefits of what the Y has done. In a Y cafeteria yes- 
terday, a Y man sat directly behind me, and behind him 
sat a K. C. man. The latter was complaining about the 
cutlery not being clean. To my great joy the Y man 
said, "There are other eating places if you don't like 
this." 

It costs me about thirty-two francs a day to live in 
Paris. The congestion here is something awful. Last 
evening I heard of an English girl who knows the town 
pretty well, who had hunted over forty hotels and hadn't 
found a thing. 

I was talking with a Y girl who has been here over 
fourteen months, and she thinks it quite natural for the 
French to hate us, as she is quite sure is getting to be 
the case — we overrun everything so. As to the K. C. men. 
in that body as in all others, there are all sorts of men. 
I have met some of them I have thought particularly fine, 
sincere, hearty and big, who would not stoop to anything 
mean. 

The Y has a special train every day for the trip to 
Versailles. It is all free, and it was intensely entertain- 
ing. Of course, the Versailles part was well worth seeing. 
But to be one of four hundred and fifty-four members 
of the A. E. F. was something that I wouldn't have 



A '<Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 71 

missed for a good deal. They were mostly soldiers, a few 
sailors, and some Y people. We were divided into groups 
of about a hundred, each with its own "barker." Wher- 
ever we went, we saw clouds of khaki, with dark blue 
sailor trimmings. There was also one bunch of officers. 
And as to uniforms, there are as many different shades 
among the Y girls as among the army men, and more 
could not be said. Our general tone is greenish gray. 
Their general tone is khaki. But no two pieces of cloth 
seem to have been dyed alike. To anyone with an eye for 
color, the A. E. F. is a motley looking crowd. xA.s to the 
French, I have never succeeded in disentangling their uni- 
forms. Thev have a few among them in khaki. Once or 
twice I haven't known until seeing him close at hand that 
the soldier was not one of ours. Some gorgeous creatures 
wear scarlet trousers, skin tight, and black coats. Their 
officers' caps are often of velvet, black or maroon, and 
have much gold braid. 



Paris, April i. — I am going to Cobleuz. It is odd. I 
haven't cared at all to go, while many of the entertainers 
would give their very eyes for the chance. I am to re- 
place an accompanist who is being sent home with tuber- 
culosis. They say she was very good — one of the few 
who could "put over" classical nnisic. 



CoiJi.KNZ, April 3. — It was a heavenly day when we 
left Paris: green fields, a bright sun, blue sky and fleecy 
white clouds. Our comfortable train had glided out of 
the Paris station, and a social atmosphere prevailed in 
our distinctly unwarlike little compartment. As we ])ro- 
gressed steadily on our way. we began to see signs of 
destruction : round patches of brown dirt in the green 
fields ; houses with crum1:»ling walls, surrounded with de- 
bris; one solid old Norman chateau that was a complete 



72 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

wreck. We were in the Chateau-Thierry region, where 
so many of our own men fought and died so short a time 
ago. The utter peace and beauty of the morning gave me 
a most pecuHar sensation. To some people it would have 
symbolized the good that must always rise, triumphant 
over evil. But to me, the utter unresponsiveness of Nature 
to our human woes, the unsympathetic beauty and peace 
of the scene seemed somehow merely cruel. 

As we kept on, we saw camouflaged ammunition sheds, 
wrecked buildings, trench systems, barbed wire entangle- 
ments, the remains of one enormous factorv that had been 
demolished ; piles of shells, and one place where a hidden 
battery had been with its large covering of green boughs. 
We saw aeroplanes throughout the day, as well as Boche 
prisoners working on the fields where their own shells had 
pitted the turf. I am glad now I have seen it. although 
sight-seeing of the battlefields was the last thing in my 
thoughts. We got to Metz. arriving at one of the finest 
stations I have seen over here, and went to a hotel to 
which a friendlv M. P. directed us. I had to pay for 
a double room, but T much preferred that to having a 
roommate. 



MoNT.MSArR, (near Coblenz). April 4. — The country 
here is beautiful : great beech forests, with smooth gray 
trunks, and no underbrush. It is all so well cared for, it 
hardly looks natural. With the beautiful, rolling hills, 
blue distances, and quaint villages, it is a lovely country. 
And at present, it is a land of the Americans. Every im- 
portant building is surmounted by our flag. All this does 
me a great deal of good. I didn't know until recently 
that this kind of vengefulness existed in me. I should 
like to see Cologne under the British heel. 

At Arenberg we went to see a church, supposed by the 
A. E. F. in this area to be rather noted. People come 



A «'Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 73 

here on pilgrimages from all over Germany. It was 
built, I believe, during the last twenty years ; and it is 
an architectural monstrosity. There are fussy, colored 
reliefs on every pillar. The windows are gaudy, not rich. 
Gaudy pictures are everywhere. There are alcoves with 
reclining figures, with invisible colored electric lights, just 
like a theater. About the altar, bad taste runs riot. Big 
paintings are surrounded by strips of mirror ; and patterns 
of shells, of many sizes, are set in the wall. Strung up 
and down the nave are crystal chandeliers, appropriate 
for an ornate theater. I can't begin to remember all the 
grotesque things. Outside there are about thirty shrines, 
with colored figures, grottoes, and queer theatrical effects. 
In one place a bronze vine has a number of buds, each 
one with a head coming from it. some grinning skulls, 
some beautiful faces. You can imagine it all. A doughboy 
near me. gazed open-eyed, and then ejaculated "Goodnight, 
nurse !" 

Our living in Germany is cheap. It seems that we pay 
nothing for our billets. The army does that. We pay 
for our meals only, which are cheap. A welcome change, 
indeed. We have nice meals, prepared and served by 
soldiers, at a German inn, where there are three pianos 
that we can use. The Y headquarters is at the Gasthof. 

My hotel in Coblenz was very comfortable. Music at 
meals was given by a grand piano and three or four other 
instruments. My waiter, an efficient one with a melan- 
choly face, had been an officer in the German army. This is 
greater comfort than having meals off a tray in a Y 
cafeteria in Paris. 

We are now quartered in one of the best houses in 
Montabaur. My two ladies, both of them singers, are a 
floor higher up than I, and are in a room together, while 
I have a little room alone. My landlady seems only too 
glad to do anything for me, and her husband has a mild 



74 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

face and white hair, and incidentally has been in China 
and Africa. 

But the two ladies have not been so well treated. 
Their landlady was very disagreeable, complained about 
having ladies quartered on her, they were so much trou- 
ble ; she had no more blankets for them ; she was ready 
to prove this by going to a neighbor to borrow some ; and 
why didn't the army take care of them? The army did! 
A fine young sergeant was sent to interview her. He 
called for the keys to search the house for more blankets. 
At this the woman's husband took a hand, and was so 
grossly insulting that he was choked into submission. 
The sergeant vowed that if the German had not been an 
old man, he would have killed him on the spot. Since 
then he comes daily to see that the ladies are well looked 
after. He read the recalcitrant Hausfrau a lesson on 
the different position of women in her country, and in his. 
In America, he told her, ladies must have the best. 

He is a very efficient young man ; he has a clean, 
sw'eet expression, clear, honest eyes, and is a thorough 
gentleman. He has one wound stripe and three service 
stripes. He wears three sergeant's chevrons, and the 
first division insignia. He would not wear all these, he 
is so quiet and modest ; but he has been ordered to wear 
them all by the commanding officer holding inspection. 
He certainly has had some great experiences. I could 
listen to them by the hour. The quiet and unemotional 
way in which he tells them makes greatly for effective- 
ness. 

Today w^e went to the Salvation Army canteen. Since 
the Y canteens have been taken over by the government, 
the commissary is the place for us to get the things we 
want, and — they don't have them. The Salvation Army 
has a little canteen in a back street, up a flight of stairs. 
There are nuts, raisins, chocolate, soap, tooth brushes, and 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 75 

a dozen and one things. I got six oranges, almost im- 
possible to get elsewhere, and the girl insisted on giving 
us each two large bars of chocolate. She wouldn't take 
any pay. She seems to be a lovely girl. 

An officer told me this story: A rule was made in 
a certain village tliat all Germans, in passing, salute our 
flag. One failed to do it, and the Americans fined him 
two hundred marks. A number of his friends signed a 
statement to the effect that he was not in the village at 
the time. The result was, that each one who signed the 
statement was also fined two hundred marks. 

The English and the French are not treating the Ger- 
mans as leniently as the Americans. In the matter of bil- 
leting troops, they are much harsher. And I think they 
are quite right. 

Yesterday, at an entertainment for the soldiers, we saw 
some performances of a Russian strong man. His great 
stunt is to clasp his hands, with his arms akimbo, while 
a horse is tugging at a rope held in the crook of each 
arm. The horses pull in opposite directions, and he holds 
them, without unclasping his hands. This was in a field. 
Then we gave our program to about seventy-five, in a 
school building. School had to be dismissed to make 
room for us. There were the funny little desks and seats, 
with the soldiers so much too big for them. It looked 
very queer. From the windows, we had a beautiful view 
of the peaceful valley, with the shadows chasing over it. 
We are right on the eastern edge of our army of occu- 
pation. 

Afterwards we took a run up to a castle where some 
American troops are quartered. The castle originated in 
the middle ages, and looks at a distance something like a 
big hotel. Certain rooms are reserved for the family (the 
Wallendorfs), while the rest is turned over to the Amer- 
icans. We were shown some of the state apartments. 



76 A «<Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

There are galleries with dozens of ancestral portraits, 
and other paintings, many of them looking to me as if 
they might be very good. There are rare pieces of furni- 
ture, carved cabinets, inlaid tables, marble stairways, old 
armor; and one room, with a perfectly immense billiard 
table, has a collection of old guns, which must be very 
valuable. The delightful irony of an American officer 
showing these weapons to guests, not of the Wallendorfs, 
but of their enemies, appealed greatly to me. The Ger- 
mans mav not admit their defeat, but it will take many 
generations to wipe out from that arrogant family the 
memory of the "barbarians" who were quartered there. 
We saw the chapel, too, fairly large, with a pretentious 
altar, paintings, and a family vault. 

We had a most delightful ride home this evening in 
the moonlight. I found a nice fire in my room, when I 
got back, and it was so comfortable. It is odd, but I am 
now noticing the comfort of warm rooms, more than I 
did the discomfort of the cold rooms in France. I saw 
a patch of snow yesterday. 

The luxury of a really warm room to go to bed in 
is something I have not had since I left the boat at 
Bordeaux, five months ago. 

My landlady seems only too delighted to have a 
chance to do something for me. She talks about the 
miserable food conditions in Germany. "We poor Germans 
have nothing but potatoes and bread to eat." She 
showed me a loaf, very dark, and close grained. 

That sergeant is extremely efficient, as I have said 
before. When he was here the other day, my landlady 
seemed much perturbed. She probably considers him a 
desperado. But he smiled down on her good-naturedly 
from his six feet, and told me to tell her that so long 
as she was good to the American girls, she would have 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 77 



nothing to fear from him. I assured her that every- 
thing was all right. 

This morning she brought me a little bouquet of flowers 
which she had picked from the garden. She has had 
many American officers billeted here, she says. The 
Americans in this house come to me to do their in- 
terpreting. I certainly am meeting a number of nice of- 
ficers. Our associates here are officers rather than pri- 
vates. 



April 13. — Last evening we went out to Ransbach. 
We had mess with some officers — two colonels, one 
major, four captains, four lieutenants, and a Y man. 
Then we gave our program, the two ladies and I, 
and it was one of the finest audiences I have ever 
performed before. They sounded wild at first, but 
when we came out they calmed down and were ap- 
preciative to the last degree. We are the first American 
women entertainers who have been there for a long time. 
We then came to the Y in Montabaur, and danced. It 
was a lot of fun. There were just three women on the 
floor. When the whistle blows, there is a mad scramble, 
half a dozen boys trying to get the same girl for a part- 
ner. The one who touches your arm first is the right 
one. You are not allowed to engage dances ahead. 

The next day we had a nice ride of fifteen kilometers, 
and were taken to dinner, with perhaps a dozen officers. 
One thing I liked was, there was no wine served. It is 
about the first officers' mess I have seen where that has 
been the case. We spent the afternoon out at the of- 
ficers' club house, and extremely pleasant it was. A few 
other Y girls came in, and we had a light supper served 
at small tables : chicken and jam sandwiches, cookies, 
chocolate layer cake, and cocoa to drink, ending with a 
Hood River apple apiece (so they faithfully assured me). 



78 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 



The country around this chib house is very beautiful, 
distinctly hilly, and in one or two places the roads are 
so narrow as to make the driving dangerous. The club 
house is near a silver mine, about two thousand years 
old. The entire house has been turned over to these 
officers. It belongs to a German millionaire, who has 
three or four similar places. He is now in Dusseldorf. 
He has evidently been something of a hunter, because 
all over the house are stuffed animals, skins and horns, 
the latter, carefully dated, adorning the walls of one room. 
He also has some very choice pictures of scenes in Italy, 
Spain and Egypt. There is an American Victrola, and 
among the others are pictures of Washington, Napoleon, 
and Frederick the Great. The china which we had for 
supper is beautiful. The house is evidentlv one of taste 
and culture. 

It is a large place, with servants' quarters the other 
side of the drive ; and it has stables and a garage. But 
comparing it with an American house of equal pretensions, 
here are some interesting differences : an American would 
have a bathroom, or at least a stationary bowl, with each 
bedroom. There are here great numbers of bedrooms, 
but only two bathrooms. The bedrooms have bowls and 
pitchers. His garage is big enough for but one auto, 
while an American would have several. And in America 
such a i)lace would have its own electric light plant, if 
wires could not be had from town. Here the light is 
gas. 

The officers are verv careful of everything. They 
have even bought smooth-soled shoes for their orderlies, 
lest the floors be scratched. They have paid for these 
out of their own pockets. And everything of especial 
value has been locked up. 

There is a great deal of hand-carved furniture. The 
great living room, with its large easy chairs and bright 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 79 

fire (the house, by the way, has a hot water plant for 
heating) was one of the most deHghtful places I have 
been in for a long time. The commanding officer, a 
major, is a very nice man. I had supper with him, at 
one of the tables for four. We talked automobiles. 



CoBLENZ, April 14. — The weather is wonderful, as I 
said before. Yesterday was a warm spring day, and to- 
day is another. I had just the feeling of spring fatigue 
I used to have in Leipsic, when the first warm spring- 
days came. It seemed almost impossible that I was not 
back there again, everything seemed so familiar. The big 
Hausthore, the mail boxes, the style of architecture, the 
German children playing in the streets, all seemed to 
take me back again. Onl}-, as I was walking along, a 
frienfUy American voice accosted me, and an American 
oflicer was walking beside me. The khaki would have 
been absent ten years ago. And my frame of mind 
is very different. In those days, if one was not naturally 
war-like, one walked softly, and avoided trouble. Now, 
Americans are ruling the town ; some 60,000 of them are 
stationed here ; the government is entirely American ; our 
M. P.'s stand on street corners, directing traffic ; an 
American machine will turn a corner, its driver shouting 
in a good-naturedly abusive fashion at Germans who hap- 
pen to be crossing the street at the moment; khaki out- 
numbers any other kind of garb almost two to one, and 
a German official will salute most snappily when an 
American officer meets him. All this does mv heart 
good. The best public buildings are turned over to our 
government; and I feel now like one of the conquering 
race, in a land of the conquered, which was not mv at- 
titude in days gone by. 

All along, when I have heard so manv others wishing 
that they could go to Germany, I have felt that I didn't 



80 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

care a button about it. I had been in Germany, and had 
left nothing behind to go after. When I finally was sent 
out, I felt a bit forlorn. I hadn't one person there who 
was even an acquaintance, let alone a friend, whom I ex- 
pected to meet. And lo, when I got here, I speedily made 
a number of most pleasant acquaintances ; I was com- 
fortably located ; had fun galore ; was placed in an ex- 
quisite country, with plenty of chances to see it ; and 
last, but by no means least, I have had the proud joy 
of feeling myself one of a conquering race, in a land 
where I had previously suffered annoyance because I was 
of that race. 

One of the troubles many a boy confides to a sym- 
pathetic friend like me, is that the girl he left behind 
him is now married to someone who stayed at home. 
In the opinion of the man in his country's uniform, this 
bridegroom is never worth the lead to shoot him with. 
These stories make me furious. 



Neuwied, April i8. — Last evening, when the time came 
for our program, the two ladies of our trio were too ill 
to appear. I talked with the head of my department, and 
we discussed the advisability of my going alone. He 
was opposed to it. He said that the men were a rough 
bunch, and had made trouble for entertainers before. It 
was finally agreed that I should go, and then at least they 
would see that faith had been kept with them. So I 
took a "peppy'' ride of twenty minutes, all alone in 
solitarv state in the tonneau of a Winton limousine. It 
was a wonderfully beautiful road, along a winding stream 
among the hills. I came to a little marine camp, where 
five delightful young officers had me for mess. After- 
wards I begged a paper and pencil, and made out my pro- 
gram : a prelude by Rachmaninoff', two numbers by Bind- 
ing ; Robert Service's "Call of the Wild ;" a parody on 



A <'Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 81 

Kipling's "If;" a comical short poem called "Tomorrow;" 
Rachmaninoff's Polichinelle ; the Wagner- Liszt Spinning- 
Song; the Erl-King, by Schubert-Liszt, and a Moskowski 
waltz, as well as O. Henry's "By Courier." There was 
a good piano (heaven be praised) in a corrugated iron 
mess hall, the only light being a dozen candles across the 
platform. My audience numbered perhaps seventy-five. 

I told them I had lost my two ladies, and so had come 
to do the best I could by myself. I couldn't do jazz 
music, but would do my best with what I was able to 
do. If they didn't like it, I shouldn't have my feelings at 
all hurt if they got up and went out. 

It pleases me to think that I could "put over" straight, 
legitimate stuff, and have them enjoy it as much as they 
seemed to do. Never have I performed to a more decorous 
audience. Those who left did it so quietly that I didn't 
know they were going. There was no talking, and the 
closest kind of attention. Before each piano number I 
gave a little talk. Of course, that was probably about 
all that saved the program. This morning, when I re- 
ported at the office and told what had happened, the 
lieutenant seemed much amused ; I don't know why. 

I am reminded of an aviation camp, in France, where 
our Victory Trio gave a program to an equally appre- 
ciative audience. We all enjoyed it. And when we got 
home we were told that those men were an especially 
"tough bunch." Not long afterwards, we were sent again 
to this same camp. It had not been so planned ; we had 
dressed for an officers' club. But some other entertain- 
ment unit had fallen ill, and the officers, not the privates, 
had to go without an entertainment. We were as usual 
late in arriving, owing to transportation troubles. And 
when we at last came to this same tough bunch, they 
were yelling their heads off. To while the time away 
they had put on a boxing match. Our hearts froze within 

6 



82 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

US at the noise they made, and the thought of facing them. 
One marine told us, later, that he admired our nerve in 
facing that "wild gang." But this time thev were just 
as attentive and appreciative as before. 

I am leaving Montabaur. Mv landladv yesterdav sent 
me off with a most darling little nosegay: buttercups, 
primroses, violets, wild currant, and ivv leaves. It was 
remarkably artistic. She said she had liked me so much. 
Poor old soul ! It is pretty hard to have strangers coming 
into your house, their wishes backed by the iron arm of 
hostile military authority, as personified by mv extremely 
efficient young sergeant. I quite believe that when she 
saw me going, and didn't know what sort of person would 
be quartered on her next, she was sorry and apprehensive. 
She told me that the first snow drops had been given to 
an American, and now these first violets to another Amer- 
ican. Surely, that would show that she had nothing against 
the Americans. I still believe that her wdiole attitude is 
based on fear alone. 



Nei'wied, April 21. — Today my Montabaur landlady 
presented me with a good-sized Easter cake, which she 
had baked especially for me. This morning (just as I 
was leaving) she gave me a postcard, showing a picture 
of our house. It is consequently very interesting. I gave 
her a piece of chocolate, an unusually good kind, which 
was given to me the other day. She made many apologies 
for the cake, she hadn't the right materials, etc. They 
spent all of yesterday baking and cleaning for Easter. 
It certainly takes me back to my Leipzic days. 

The German family seemed very sorry to see me go. 
I think partly they may have liked me, and also they 
didn't know what sort of people they might get in my 
place. She said she wanted to have me stay until the 
Americans all left. I told her that I should like to, but 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 83 

that I was, so to speak, in the army, and that in the 
army one was not the master of one's own movements. 
And then she asked a question which was typically Ger- 
man : "Aren't you of the officers' class? You are not 
like a common soldier." I told her oft'icers had no more 
to say about their own disposal than privates. 

It is quite true that all women workers are free to 
go to any place that is reserved for officers. On the 
trains we travel first class, while buck privates go third. 
Non-coms go second. It seems that American privates 
must travel third class, because the French privates do. 
It certainly doesn't seem right that the donning of a 
uniform, supposed to be an honor, should yet subject the 
wearer to inconvenience to which a civilian is not sub- 
jected. 

The ride over here was a very beautiful one, a wind- 
ing road above a brook, and hills rising on all sides. I 
had taken the ride the evening before. The way was 
beautiful by night ; but I was very glad to see it by 
day. We had a Cadillac. 

In the hotel zum wilden Mann I have a nice, large 
room, all to myself, on the corner, with four windows, and 
near a Platz where the American band plays. We are to 
give seven performances for the week, as against ten in 
Montabaur. 

Not long ago I remonstrated with a boy I know quite 
well on his swearing so much. It seems they do it quite 
unconsciously. Lately I met this same nice youth again. 
He had greatly improved. He said he was glad I had 
spoken as I did, and "You done me good." * ='■ * Be- 
fore last evening's program, we had a delightful time at 
the officers' mess, and then went over to the hall. When 
the chaplain was introducing us. and mentioned me from 
Portland, Oregon, a wild yell went up from the Oregonians 
there. Just before my last number, I said that I hoped 



84 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

those Oregonians who had made such a noise would come 
up later and speak to me. And they certainly did. The 
young fellow who came to tell me thev were there, put 
it thus : "The Oregon army is waiting for you." I had 
a great time shaking hands and talking to them. 

The program went very well. There was no getting 
up and leaving, and almost no talking. It was the 66th 
artillery, containing a large proportion of college men. 
The hall was a beauty : a fine piano, a fine stage, and 
such acoustics as I have seldom heard. It is a German 
Festhalle. Afterwards, in the canteen, we drank choco- 
late, ate wafers, and talked with more Oregon boys. With 
one of them I exchanged all sorts of equine experiences. 

All this recalls the camp, in France, where I heard that 
there were a number of men from Oregon, and so re 
cited Simpson's "Beautiful Willamette," a truly lovely 
poem. After the program, they just crowded around me. 
And it had been a most appreciative audience. They feel 
strongly averse, so they said, to French performers ; they 
want Americans. "We don't want no frogs," said one 
youth. I was told that one man had gone to bed, in- 
stead of coming to the concert. But when he heard there 
was someone there from Oregon, he dressed and came 
to the "reception." 



April 23. — One thing that makes me feel quite badly 
is the continual string of soldiers I see on horseback 
I have had the offer of a horse more than once, but the 
insurmountable obstacle is the lack of a suitable costume. 
The other day a major was offering one of his horses, 
and when I spoke of the mundane subject of clothes, he 
suggested that I wear a pair of enlisted men's trousers. 
I didn't want a ride quite that badly ! It seems, as I 
heard the story (which may not be true) that a Y girl 
did just that, and rode into some rather populous town. 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 85 

As a result (the story goes on) she was severely repri- 
manded, and is now on her way home. 

The other day I was talking to an officer about the 
German state of mind. He told of an experience that 
either he himself or a friend of his had had. As the 
troops were entering Germany, certain of the officers were 
billeted in a very fine home belonging to a lieutenant- 
colonel in the German army. This lieutenant-colonel 
scraped and bowed, posted himself just outside the of- 
ficer's door, and when anything was wanted, rushed and 
fetched it himself. Imagine an Anglo-Saxon officer of 
that rank behaving in that way ! It seems to me, how- 
ever, a logical result of their system. 




86 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

CHAPTER VII 

Dinner and supper menus — Pride in the superb physique of our 
soldiers — Excellent meals at officers' club in Neuwied — Church 
services — Transfer from entertainment to religious department — 
Leave area work in Andernach, and a: glorious gOod time — Dance in 
German officers' school — Hall ornate — Beautiful gardens — Palatial 
place — Trembling eagerness of boys for partners pathetic — Good 
behavior of enlisted men — Andernach Y hut — The Rhine — Agreeable 
landlady — German major's great garden — Orchids — Nightingales^ 
Miss S. and I once more — Wonderful saddle horses — Cows shod for 
draft animals — My landlady talks — -German orchestra — Undesirables 
among our men — Hero — Tipsy but gentle — Cake recipe for a boy — 
General H. — Three weeks of marvelous weather — Flowers — Dancing 
— Auto enthusiasts — The Frenchman — Theatrical entertainers — Ice 
cream, chocolate and picking pansies — Joy in work — Rhine trip and 
Beethoven — Crap — Hardships of men on march into Germany — 
(General Pershing. 

COMING home from luncheon at an officers' mess, we 
met the canteen girl who had been handhng choco- 
late for the soldiers at the track meet. I believe 
she counted up something like 125 gallons that had been 
disposed of. 

Last evening we had a nice, long ride to our enter- 
tainment place. We had a wonderful dinner : fried chicken, 
peas, mashed potatoes, Spanish cream, and most wonderful 
cinnamon rolls. And if this menu doesn't sound wonderful 
to you, it is because you don't know food conditions here. 
Delicacies can be had more easily in France, because one 
can buy of the French people, wdiile one may not buy of 
the German people, and is entirely dependent on what the 
army provides. The army provides staples, but isn't likely 
to bother much about fancy gastronomic flights. At table 
were two Y canteen women, a Y man. and four officers. 
It was a remarkably nice company, and the conversation 
was much easier than it often is. Frequently, the officers 
are voung, and socially inexperienced, and the talk doesn't 
go well. These men were all young, even the major, 
but they knew society, and as a party it was a great 
success. 

Our program was given to a very rough bunch. 
They didn't take my piano, but my reading went well, 
and the numbers l)v the other ladies went finelv. The 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 87 

men whooped, and yelled, and whistled till you thouglit 
your ear drums would burst. Afterwards we went into 
the officers' mess room again, and they made us stay for 
about an hour and a quarter, and then we had a hard 
time getting- away. We were served with coffee, hot 
buttered toast, and more cinnamon rolls, and we had more 
talk. It was one of the most delightful parties that have 
been given to us. But it was about 10:30 before we got 
home. 

One of the lieutenants who remarked particularly on 
my piano music, and what a treat it was to hear some- 
thing good in that line, was an intimate friend of the girl 
who died on the boat on our way over. She was an en- 
tertainer, and had also studied in Leipzic. Like so many 
of the men in this army, he was a magnificent physical 
specimen. I certainly tingle with pride when I see our 
men ; they are nearly all of them such strong, big men, 
and are physically so superlatvely fine. 



NeuwiEd, April 27. — I am having excellent meals here. 
It is an officers' club, run by the Y, where for two francs 
(or four marks) one gets a breakfast of cereal, bread, 
butter, and unusually delicious marmalade made of grape- 
fruit or pineapple, or something equally rare ; coffee, and 
two eggs, served in various ways. The evaporated milk- 
was so thick this morning that it poured like syrup in 
winter. It tastes really very much like cream. Luncheon 
here is equally good, and costs three francs. And the 
appointments here are so dainty, beautiful flowers on 
spotless tables, good china and good service in a very 
handsome place. It is the old casino, has a fine ball-room, 
etc. The food is excellentlv cooked. 



April 28. — This evening we were taken in a limousine 
to a Masonic hall to give our program. I had a Bluethner 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 



grand piano, in fine condition, to play on. The presiding 
major bronght us home in his car, and very kindly of- 
fered to place it at our disposal whenever we wanted 
to go sight-seeing. He said he wanted to reciprocate for 
what we did this evening. 

Since I last wrote, I have been to two church services, 
and I am just starting to another. In a near-by church an 
American Episcopal service was being held, and I found it 
very impressive. It was just high enough to be solemn. In a 
good-sized congregation (a good many officers, including one 
general, being present), the only other woman besides myself 
downstairs, and the only one in civilian dress, was an old 
German woman in black on the back seat. It was very 
moving to me to see that large congregation, not one of 
whom had come because his wife had brought him, and 
very few, probably, who had come because they thought 
it was the thing to do. They were there because they 
felt the inner urge. 

I am to be transferred to the religious department, and 
am to be stationed at Andernach. It is a leave-area, where 
the Y gives as happy a day as it possibly can to the 
soldiers who come in from the out-lying posts, where they 
have no diversion of any kind, and are, so to speak, 
dying of inaction and home-sickness. 



Andernach, May 4. — I certainly seem to myself to be 
one of the luckiest people that ever were. Everywhere I 
go, things seem to open up so beautifully for me. I 
am stationed at a leave area, with a wonderful hall, a fine 
bunch of women, a glorious grand piano, and a delightful 
landlady, on one of the most beautiful spots on the Rhine. 
I am to be a combination of musical entertainer and re- 
ligious and recreational worker. 

Saturday, as there was no dancing at any of the huts 
for enlisted men, I was sent out to Engers, perhaps ten 



'Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 89 



miles away. I got a Y worker, a delightful woman of 
perhaps 50, to go with me. Fifteen minutes before the 
time set, a Cadillac drew up at the door, and we were 
taken out all by ourselves. We arrived at a beautiful 
Iniilding, on the east bank of the Rhine, which had been 
a German officers' school, and later a hospital. It is a 
palatial place, with beautiful gardens. The hall where we 
danced was small, but extremely ornate, with mirrors, 
carvings, paintings, quite in the French style. The only 
thing lacking to a complete French effect was gilding. 
The ceiling was painted, very good work. One of my 
partners, whose business in life is painting, said that it 
had been done in 1760, after the Rubens style, by a 
man whose grandson retouched the work in 1845. This 
young fellow, my partner, was planning to come to this 
hall to do some sketching. The music was good, the floor 
was good ; there was just one disadvantage : there was not 
enough room. There are some seventeen hundred men 
stationed there. Second Division Engineers. Collisions 
were many, but I didn't mind ; it added excitement, and 
took away all formality and stiffness. 

Of course, I had a fine time. But in a way it was 
one of the most pathetic things I have seen, the trembling 
eagerness of these boys for a partner. One nice chap 
was one of two to touch me simultaneously, at the blow- 
ing of the whistle. He said he had been trying for two 
hours to get a dance with a girl, and hadn't made it yet. 
There were perhaps a dozen girls there, all from the Y. 
After this, I shall try to do all the dancing that my work 
will allow. * * * It is a constant source of wonder 
to me, considering the large number of men in the army 
from those sometimes snobbishly called the lower classes, 
that these enlisted men's dances are so decorous. The men 
are always so well behaved, and gentlemanly. You would 
expect tliat all sorts of disagreeable things might happen 



90 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

to you, but they don't. * * * We rode home again in 
the Cad, and got home about 11:45. Andernach is a 
forty-five minute drive from Coblenz. 

Today has been just hke heaven. This morning we 
held service in the wonderful new hut. It is enormous, 
with a splendid stone fireplace, and raised platform. It 
cost $37,500.00. There are all sorts of easy chairs, by 
the hundred, almost, with desks, reading matter, and this 
wonderful new piano. It is a Aland, a make I never heard 
of before coming into this area, but I have played on 
several that were very fine. This is a concert grand, 
brand new, and valued at $3500.00. It has a range of 
nearly eight octaves, going up to C in the treble, while 
the bass includes F. It will give me a chance for some 
wonderful bass work. 

I opened the service this morning with a prelude. A 
fine musician of the church choir variety, led the singing. 
A Mrs. de G. sang. She has been an opera singer here 
for six years. She is French, and now in Y work. I 
had lunch with Mrs. N. and the Y girls who are working 
under her. She is a lady and seems quite the round peg 
in the round hole. The girls are charming. During the 
afternoon I "floated" and talked to the soldiers. To night 
I had dinner in the enlisted men's cafeteria : a hot ham- 
burger sandwich, which was perfect; a piece of rather 
solid pie ; some ice cream made from condensed milk, and 
a cup of chocolate. 

This evening I played hymns and two solos at the 
evening service, and then I went over to the main hut. 
and sat on the fine verandah, which surrounds the hut. 
and looks out on the Rhine. It is right over the water, 
with chairs drawn up to the railing. First of all, the 
wonderful pink and blue sunset was reflected in the water 
down the gorge ; then the deepening shadows, and the 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 91 

twinkling lights, appearing one by one. A tow boat with 
several barges was anchored for the night, just opposite. 
One could hear the lapping of the water against its sides. 
The busy little American patrol boat chugged up and 
down the river. From the hall inside came strains of 
excellent music from the German orchestra. (Ten men 
are paid to play there every afternoon and evening.) 
Some way, I couldn't believe that all this was happening 
to me. Finally, I tore myself away, and came home. 

My landlady is only too willing to do anything for 
me. I can get hot water whenever I want it. And my 
room, while tiny, looks out on a lovely garden, with fruit 
trees in bloom, and the nightingales sing there now. It is 
interesting to see the way things go. Miss S. wanted 
to come to Germany, and I didn't care about it. She was 
always dissatisfied, and striving for something different. 
As for me, I did not fret and worry. I was content 
to take things as they came, and not get ready for tiger- 
shooting while I was still in Canada. I got discouraged 
sometimes, I will admit, but I did the best I could. And, 
suddenly, this thing came to me, just what she would have 
dreamed of, and it came to me almost unasked. I don't 
know, of course, whether she has anything in France as 
good. But better she can't have, because it doesn't exist. 

This leave area is for soldiers, only. No Y people 
can have leave in Germany. * * * I met a major gen- 
eral today. He heard me play. He is a man who 
exhales power, but not grace. And I have also seen 
some wonderful saddle horses. And, in Germany, they 
use cows, nowadays, for draft animals. They even shoe 
them. I wonder how much milk they give after a 
hard dav's work. 



May 5. — Today has been another day just like heaven. 
This evening I went to the dance at the big hut. There 



92 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

were not more than half a dozen girls but mobs of boys. 
May 6. — This morning is one of the kind you read 
about, but seldom see. I am sitting by my open window. 
The sun is shining brilliantly on my beautiful garden, 
with its pear blossoms ; and it is also shining on the 
major's garden, just over the fence. Perhaps two hun- 
dred and fifty American soldiers are quartered there now. 
There is a large stone house, set in the middle of very 
beautiful grounds, with many shrubs and trees, both ever- 
green and deciduous. The place belongs to a German 
major, so my landlady (who seems very kindly disposed) 
was telling me. The major's first wife was very wealthy, 
and he put her entire fortune into orchids. He had thou- 
sands of rare plants, of all colors, from all parts of the 
globe. Last winter, with no coal, they all froze to death. 
Now his extensive green-houses are empty. And again 
the beautiful irony of things! Young America now dis- 
ports itself on his sacred lawns, and breaks off branches 
from his sacred shrubs. And this young America comes, 
not as a guest, but as a conqueror. At intervals, all 
through the day, bugle calls are heard on his grounds. 
But they are not German bugle calls. * * * fhe 
birds, at least, know no humiliation. They sing just as 
wonderfully as they ever did. Ever since daybreak, I 
have been listening to the different songs outside my win- 
dow. Now, I am listening to a nightingale. It is noon, 
but I am assured that it does sometimes sing by day. 
I heard this same bird last night, at about eleven. I am 
reminded of my only other experience with a nightingale. 
It was in England, and I was much disappointed. I have 
come to the conclusion that there is something lacking 
in me. Everyone else seems to think a nightingale's song 
so wonderfully beautiful ; and I would rather hear a good 
canary, any day. There is, to be sure, a certain trill which 
is lovely, and certain whistled notes which are also beau- 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 93 

tiful. But hear all the poets — Christina Rossetti, for ex- 
ample : 

"We call it love and pain, 

The passion of her strain, 

And yet, we little understand, or know ; 

Why should it not be rather joy, that so 

Throbs in each throbbing vein ?" 
I like it no better than the California mocking-bird. 



May 7. — This is another marvelous day. As I walk 
through the streets of this little town, I see the cherry 
trees (already shedding their flower petals) and the Ger- 
man shop windows, and it all carries me back to my 
spring days in Leipzig. I seem to be there once again. 

My landlady has been talking to me. I didn't argue 
with her ; it does not pay. She is still a very patriotic 
German. She speaks of the wonderful victories they 
achieved at first ; of how Germany alone could have fin- 
ished France in six weeks ; of how terrible the peace terms 
are ; and how sad that Germany, once the highest of all, 
should have fallen so low ; and how impossible it was 
for Germany, alone, to fight the whole world. And she 
declares the great mistake Germany made was in not 
staying united ; then, they might still have been victorious. 

I do not quite understand her talking thus to me. She 
is very sweet about it, nothing blatant in her manner. 
I judge her to be about 30. It is strange she does not 
realize that I, from an enemy country, can not share 
her point of view. * ''' * She asked me yesterday if 
I could buy her some chocolate. Her little boy is sick, 
has no appetite, and will not drink milk. I told her it 
was a very serious ofifense to buy of the American com- 
missary and sell to the French, even ; and certainly we 
could not sell to the Germans. But I gave her two sticks 
of chocolate that I had bought, and I had quite a time 



94 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

making her take it without pay. I did it, of course, 
partly for the sake of the httle boy, and partly to smooth 
my own path. 

The other evening at the dance at the big hut, there 
were about 500 boys and only myself and one other Y 
girl ! Of course, several men may touch your arm at the 
same instant, and you can't possibly decide who should 
have the dance. Then the well-bred gentlemen bow and 
step back, while the more persistent youths toss coins. 
And this is certain : the German orchestra cannot 
play American dance music. Their waltzes are all too 
fast, and they change time frequently. 

One youngster told me he had been coming for two 
weeks, regularly, and that this was his first dance with a 
lady. A nice boy got another boy to dance with, and 
followed me around the floor. Another made such a wild 
dash, that if I had not held on to him, he would probably 
have fallen down. It is in a way, of course, a trifle. And 
yet it strikes me as one of the most pathetic things I 
have seen over here. My last partner was well pro- 
portioned, and his height was six feet, three and a quarter 
inches. 

The German orchestra are paid two hundred marks a 
dav, and play in the hut five hours a day. They seem 
nice, gentle young fellows. The pianist and I played for 
each other, and parted amicably. And again I am struck 
with amazement that such men could do the things they 
have undoubtedly done. * * * The other day my 
landlady asked me to come in and play for them, which 
I did. 

The Y girls here are a picked set, most of them 
college girls. The other day in Coblenz one of these 
charming Y girls was forced to call down a soldier 
in the dining-room. And here in Andernach, Mrs. N.'s 
life is not a merry jest. Many undesirables appear in 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 



95 



the hut. Last evening one who has made things dis- 
acrreeable for three months, was told to leave. She turned 
htm over to an officer, a friend of hers, just outside. 
This man was the kind who comes a dozen times a day 
for favors, takes everything the Y has to offer, and 
then, when he is refused because he asks the mipossible, 
sneers about the Y never doing anything. We may ex- 
pect censure of the Y in public places from his sort, on 
their arrival home. Some of these men hide their beer 
bottles under the porch, and make trips out to them 
during the evening. Thev are not allowed to drink on the 
premises. This man had been doing that. He had been so 
disagreeable and impossible that the girls had tried by a 
spec"ial effort to get hold of him, and make him more 
appreciative. But it only had the effect of making hnn 
more bumptious. Mrs. N. calls such men "rotters." 

I have been awfully lucky. I have met an excep- 
tionally nice set of boys. I got into the harness a little, 
here in the hut, when a soldier who had torn a snag m 
his coat asked me to mend it, which I did. making, by 
the way, a pretty good job of it. This man, who has 
been cited eight times for extreme bravery and has a 
D. S. cross, has been drunk for three weeks. Dr. F, 
got hold of him and gave him a talking to. The man 
wept copiously, and promised to go home, and sober up 
He never does anything objectionable, and he knows he is 
drunk. He seems to have, even in that state, a great 
respect for women. For two or three days, as it hap- 
pens, he has been dogging my footsteps. In the cafeteria 
he comes up and shakes hands, and begins to talk about 
truth. I find myself sitting opposite him at table. In 
exchange for mending his coat I received as a souvenir 
a German bullet. And when I was playing yesterday, he 
came and leaned over the piano, and began to talk of 



96 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

the time when we should both be dead ! Truly, mv pres- 
ent Hfe is not monotonous. 

* * * * * 

I wrote out a recipe for a cake, today, for a boy, 
with full directions for making it. I hope it will be a 
success. 



May 29. — Yesterday afternoon I was sitting outside 
on the porch, and Gen. H. came out and talked for about 
fifteen minutes. He is a major general, in command of 
this area. He is rather a fine figure of a man, about fifty- 
five, with a jaw like Gibraltar, cold, domineering eyes, 
set close together, and the habit of commanding. He 
catechized me as if I were in the witness box, and then, 
right there, on the porch of the Y hut, he began knocking 
the Y, although he was gracious enough to praise the 
women's work. I replied that it was a great pity there 
had been so many misfits in all departments, but I sup- 
posed it was unavoidable, owing to the magnitude of the 
task and the short time in which it had to be done. He 
caught what I meant, and said that the army had not 
been troubled with misfits. He was a bit belligerent about 
it, and when he left, I don't think he liked me. He will 
contradict you flatly, without a qualm. He has evidently 
become so used to command, that he wishes to command 
everyone. 

The country is wonderful now. The fruit trees have 
shed their blossoms, but in the gardens here the red haw- 
thorn is out, sweetwilliams are growing tall, peonies are 
in bloom, and ferns are unfolding their long fronds. We 
have had three weeks of marvelous weather, and it shows 
no sign of breaking. 

I had a very pleasant time dancing last evening: I had 
four dances with a man who can w^altz divinely, and who 
seems a gentleman. He has just been in an auto wreck. 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 97 

and was rather bandaged up. I don't know whether all 
the men in this army know and love machines, or whether 
those who do just naturally drift to me. 

I am seeing a good deal of a certain Frenchman at 
our dances. Outwardly, he is extremely courteous. When 
he gets a girl away from an American, he bows to the 
American, and asks "You will allow it?" I heard a 
story the othe'r day. A Y girl, walking along with a 
lot of packages, was run into by a French officer. He 
scraped and bowed around, apologizing most profusely; 
but it was an ^American doughboy who picked up the 
bundles. 

The other afternoon we had a group of four women 
entertainers who gave us a half hour's program. They 
were regular theatrical people. The pianist, who played 
very well, and accompanied wonderfully, was well dressed, 
wearing as the finish to her costume a good-sized neck- 
piece of fur. In warm weather that did not appeal to 
the doughboys. The youth next to me hoped she would 
be warm enough, with her fur. He also commented on 
the amount of paint she had on. These doughboys are 
hard to fool. 

Sometimes I sell ice cream, making change in both 
French and German money. It is rather fun. I also 
somtimes pour chocolate. I have been reading German 
script for Mrs. N., picking dead pansies, and doing a 
certain part of the overseeing of the German gardeners. 
The other afternoon I had a big crowd at the chocolate 
barrage, where the boys are daily given chocolate and 
doughnuts. I had to hold them up several times because 
the plates had been washed so badly. The maids would 
give me black looks, every time I brought out another 
pile I had condemned. But by the end of the afternoon 
I was getting plates you could not find a streak on. any- 
where. My German is coming in quite handy ! 



98 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

I have just received a bunch of eighteen letters. But 
I heard one Y man say that he had once been so long 
without mail that he got one hundred and eight letters 
all at once. 

At present, I am making myself as useful as I can, 
and am having quite the time of my life. The weather 
continues like heaven ; I have charming associates, and a 
sort of grand house party, all day long, with appar- 
entlv all the men in creation to talk to, if I wish. An 
opportunity, indeed ! 

On Tuesday I went with a new girl, just added to our 
force, to Bonn, on the Rhine. This was a part of our 
work, mind you. There were several hundred soldiers 
on board the boat, and we were supposed to "float." Float- 
ing appeals to me, although it is rather hard to talk all 
day. It was a wonderful trip : a glorious day, a nice 
boat, flying the American flag, and entirely devoted to 
soldiers. The trip lasted from nine-thirty to four. We 
spent nearly two hours in Bonn. A Y man explained the 
sights, and we got booklets, telling of the legends, which 
I shall read when I get time. At Bonn we went through 
the town, Cook's tourist fashion, saw the university build- 
ings, an old church, and the Beethoven Museum. It was 
very interesting. In some of his manuscripts the rough 
drafts were so very rough and crossed that I couldn't 
make head or tail out of them. And the finished copies 
were about as legible as print. His old piano was there, 
and it seems to be the thing to play on it. I should 
never have done it. however, if the Y man hadn't asked 
me to. I played a few chords, and, of course, it was in 
awful shape. You can read about it all in Baedeker. 

Little did I think, when I was last on the Rhine, that 
my next trip would be with a boat-load of American sol- 
diers, who had come as conquerers of Germany. 

One feature of the soldier's life is "Crap." Even on the 
boat, about a dozen of them gathered in one end, oblivious 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 99 

of all such trifles as scenery, and "shot crap." Officers 
tell of having lost several months' pay, and being broke. 
Privates tell of the wad they won last night, which they 
don't expect to keep. 

Andernach has a delightful park, facing the Rhine. 
And all over the city are remains of old Roman walls. 
One old watch-tower, and an old gate, certainly look odd, 
cheek by jowl with the Y frame buildings. The attitude 
certain people take about this Rhineland scenery makes 
me rather tired. It is to me undeniably beautiful, even 
though, as it happens, I have seen grander. May not 
a thing be beautiful, even though it be not superlatively 
so? I have no quarrel with them when they refuse to 
consider, in a comparison of beauty, the historical asso- 
ciations involved. Many people, who are merely carried 
away by romantic interest, claim to be talking about 
beauty. As a matter of fact, I think the German flag, 
with its combination of color, and the simple dignity of 
the long bars, beautiful. Yet the Germans stand for every 
thing I hate. 

It is pathetic to hear these boys talk of the hardships 
they had when coming into Germany : walking twenty 
miles a day, frequently insufficiently fed, with eighty-five 
pound packs on their backs ; they didn't care whether 
thev lived or died. Splendid, strong loqking men would 
throw away every ounce they could, and be left with 
no blankets on the cold nights. They looked like skeletons, 
when they got here. I talked yesterday to one young 
fellow of twenty-two, who looks all of thirty. Our army 
may not have been in it very long, but while they were 
in, it was hard. 

Generals are getting to be quite a commonplace around 
here. General Pershing came, one day recently, met the 
ladies, inspected everything, told the boys in a short 
speech that they were soon going home, and departed in 
a blaze of glory in his Loco car. 



100 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

CHAPTER VIII 

Tall stories of Southern youth — Grand ball at hut — Farewell 
party — Ball game in fancy dress — No love lost between privates 
and officers — Ruined tower and two intelligent sergeants — Of our 
attitude towards the Germans — Scotchmen in kilties — Reform of 
nice little corporal — Trip to Cologne — Dust and food shortage — Our 
mess at Andernach, Belgian waitress, German cook and his cakes — 
My delightful billet — My landlady's heirlooms — Her friendliness — 
Grand and glorious time — More talk of our attitude to the Germans 
— Technicalities of the Liberty trucks — Fourth of July — Fortress 
of Ehrenbreitstein — "At home I'm his chauffeur" — Maria Laach — 
Round-faced youth's tall story of his mother — Third division leaving 
for home — "I have been so happy here" — Last big dance — In charge 
of hut — British tea party — ^General H. again — More ice cream — 
Youth with marked social gifts, who reads Dante, eats seven huge 
dishes! — Belgian gardener and his German wife — Other Y workers 
envious of opportunities at Andernach — Y activities — I am now sole 
Y worker here — My work drawing to a close. 

^f\(\y lULLET is still delightful. The lilacs are 
^^fl blooming profusely, whole trees of them, in the 
/•'^^ major's garden; the nightingale sings at in- 
tervals ; and my landlady is most friendly. 

I usually do my writing now at the hut, as I want 
to be on call, if I am wanted. I have had many interesting 
conversations at this writing-table. One yesterday was 
with a southern youth, who had been in all the Mexican 
border troubles. Like so many of these southerners (and 
I didn't know till I came over here that there were so 
many southerners in existence) he was a talker, and he 
talked for an hour, hardly stopping to take breath. Un- 
doubtedly much fiction is related as fact by these boys. 
How much of this boy's tale was true, I have of course 
no means of knowing. But it was at least extremely en- 
tertaining. His father had begun life poor, and had 
amassed a fortune in the movies, I believe. He has re- 
cently settled on this son four million dollars, half of it 
in solid cash ! 

It seems that seven years ago, a noted automobile race 
was up, on which large sums of money were bet. He 
was much surprised that I had not heard of this race. 
The man who was to drive, broke his arm at the last 
minute, so to speak ; and this boy, then fourteen, drove 



Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 101 



the race and won. He drove a Rambler at one hundred 
and twenty miles an hour, the man with the broken arm 
being there as mechanic and director. He says that at 
that speed, the road seems to come together, and not be 
wide enough. It looks as if it were falling on you, and 
unless your nerve is perfect, you are gone. Whether this 
is true or not, I can believe this youth would be capable 
of all of this. He looks like it. To one reading about 
hiin, he seems to have been boasting. But to me, not 
altogether unsophisticated, it sounded like a man who 
either was telling of facts, or believed himself that he 
was. If a novelist's imagination led him away from the 
broad highway of truth to the by-paths of fiction, I be- 
lieve that he at least was convinced that he was telling 
the truth. * * * In all the time he talked, of home 
experiences, the Mexican border, automobiles, and the two 
girls, he never once mentioned any experiences over here. 
And' yet he has been in the thick of it all, with the 
original Third Division. I asked him why he was so 
silent on the subject. He answered that he had lost very 
good friends at the front, and it had all been so bad that 
he didn't like to talk about it. 

You can see, with youths .like that floating around, 
where I get my letter-writing done. 

There is one boy here, not yet seventeen, who has 
been in the army a year. He is the partner with whom 
that youth always follows me around the dancing floor 
until the music stops, and then this youngster is left un- 
ceremoniouslv in the lurch. "Boy Scout" is what they call 
him. '-^ * * Last evening we had a grand ball. There 
were fifty women present, gathered from all parts of this 
leave area. And we also had ice cream, and features. 
Maj. Gen. H. led the grand march, with Mrs. N. There 
was a squad drill, with four squads, four colonels judging. 
My red-headed boy of the Mexican border, just spoken 



102 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

of, got the prize. He is such a friendly chap, and after- 
wards came up for my commendation, just Hke a child. 
There was certainly a precision, a clockwork snappiness 
about this drill which was great. I was not surprised at 
his winning the prize. He strikes me as that sort. He 
insisted on getting my address. I wonder how many of 
the youths to whom I have given it will ever turn up? 

There was one interesting feature : there were hundreds 
of men, and only fifty women, as I have said ; so the 
men formed in line for dancing tickets, red-white and blue. 
When the red flag was flying, the red tickets were good, 
and so on. Each number had two encores. At the close 
of each third of the time when red ruled, any other red 
ticket holder would be privileged to "tag" a girl. Thus 
one small group did not get all the dances, as so often 
happens on ordinary nights. Of course, as was to be ex- 
pected, some of them got tickets of all three colors. But 
when they flew the American flag, it was a free-for-all. 
There were many fancy dress costumes, a Mephisto- 
pheles, a purple velvet court garb, and all that sort of 
thing. These were for the boys to wear at the dances, 
when it pleased them. But the rules required that the 
girls wear their uniforms. This rule was at times evaded 
by the girls. 

Evening before last, we had a party, a farewell to 
one of the girls who is leaving for home. We broke the 
rules just a little bit, but who wouldn't, when some girl 
is going back home? After the dance at the hut was 
over, we closed up everything, turned out the lights, so 
that all the boys left, and then at about ten o'clock, -thirty 
of us came back, sat around a blazing fire in the huge fire- 
place, sang songs, played games, and ate Welsh rarebit. 
At about eleven-thirty we began to dance. It was shortly 
before that the telephone rang, and Mrs. N. answered it. 
It was Col. P. When he found out that Mrs. N. was 



A "Y " GIRL OVERSEAS 103 

giving a party, he asked her to tell the corporal of the 
guard, who was on the way thither, to call him up when 
he arrived. He had been trying for an hour to get the 
hut, but hadn't succeeded. The telephone is a long way 
from the fire-place, and we were not a particularly silent 
party ! He said he thought some boys had broken in and 
were holding high carnival in the Y hut. So he had 
sent a guard around, to arrest the outfit. Mrs. N. kept 
all this dark from the rest of us, but told one boy. We 
were dancing merrily, when the guard burst in on us. 
The boy I was dancing with exclaimed, "The joint's 
pinched !" It was after twelve, and all Y women are sup- 
posed to be in their billets by twelve, and the soldiers ofif 
the streets by ten. We didn't know what was going to 
happen. Personally, I saw nothing to get excited about ; 
but the boys, who were in a little different position from 
mine, gathered in a knot around the guard, and for five 
minutes there was much agitation. The corporal, in the 
meantime, was calling up Col. P. and getting his dis- 
charge. Then Mrs. N. took the rest of us into her 
confidence, and escorted the guards back and gave them 
the rest of the Welsh rarebit. We then all went home. 
One young fellow took me home in a machine, which he 
had at his disposal. 



May 30th. — I have seen a bicycle here with many little 
springs fitted on the rim of the wheel, the springs resting 
on another rim. A clever substitute for rubber tires. 
"^ * * The other day I heard a cuckoo in the valley. 
I think I haven't heard one since my first summer in 
England. * * * It seems that there are eleven hun- 
dred women welfare workers in the army of occupation, 
seven hundred of whom are shortly to be sent home. I 
had that from General H. The entertainers are all going 
home. And General H. has now issued an order that all 



104 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

Germans must be off the street at night bv 9:30. I am 
glad of that. It used to worry me that the Germans 
could gather on the streets after the Americans were all 
in their quarters for the night. 

Yesterday Mrs. N. took me with her to a greenhouse, 
where she bought a lot of flowers. I talked German for 
her, and incidentally had a beautiful ride on a Quad-Nash. 
The flowers now are in most beautiful bloom, the haw- 
thorn is a dream, and the weather still continues like 
heaven. In the afternoon, as an amusement for the 
soldiers, there was a baseball game between a bunch of 
boys and some Y girls. It was advertised all over town, 
and quite a large crowd attended. The 7th infantry band 
played, and General H. threw the first ball. The boys 
had to pitch and bat left-handed ; and, as further handicap, 
they had to dress in feminine attire, which was procured 
from the property-room. We have one connected with our 
hut, where fancy-dress costumes are kept for use at our 
balls. To see the great hob-nailed shoes and khaki legs 
showing beneath a blue satin skirt, and to see the boys' 
attitudes, legs wide apart, leaning over with hands on 
knees ! And the dresses themselves were so absurd ! One 
was a tight-fitting blue satin, with a chiffon ruffle of yel- 
low, accordion pleated, torn on one side, hanging down, 
and showing through the gap the khaki legs in action ! 
Another was a decollete pink satin. It was too small, and 
kept slipping off the shoulders ; the wearer couldn't do 
up the back, so it had been left undone. He was catcher, 
and his gymnastics in that pink satin ball-gown were 
delicious ! He had good looking arms and neck, too. 
It was a screamingly funny game. Needless to say, the 
girls played badly, and so did the boys. Two lieutenants 
acted as umpires, and gave the game to the girls. Of 
course the girls were supposed to win, whatever hap- 
pened ; but if two privates had been umpires and had 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 105 

given the game away, it would merely have been consid- 
ered place anx dames; as it was I could tell by several 
remarks I heard made by privates that they felt the of- 
ficers were currying favor with the ladies at the privates' 
expense. As a rule, officers and privates do not love one 
another. Mrs. N. and I did not play. In the write-up of 
the game in the "Watch on the Rhine," the official news 
sheet of the Third Division, one of the things mentioned 
was that Miss T. had been arrested by an M. P. for 
stealing bases ! 

The other day Mrs. N. and I had a ride of about three 
hours, including a most interesting visit to a ruined castle. 
Geraldine Farrar is said to have spent some time there. 
In the good old days, it was the residence of a queen, or 
duchess, named Genevieve, and about her a romantic tale 
is told. We passed through exquisite scenery ; green hills, 
the highways bordered on both sides with blooming cherry 
and apple trees (which, by the way. needed pruning, fer- 
tilizing and spraying) ; charming little villages nestling in 
the hollows of the hills ; and, over all, a brilliant blue sky. 
with fleecy white clouds. I have seldom had a pleasanter 
joy-ride. We explored the castle, and from the big 
tower we had a view of all creation. There I had quite 
a talk with two nice sergeants, both of them intelligent 
fellows. 

One was deploring the hatred of the Germans that 
had arisen among our people at home. He seemed to feel 
that the tales told of them were exaggerated. And he 
said that while we deplored the things they had undoubt- 
edly done, at the same time there was no need for us 
to hate and persecute the German people, who really, in 
a way, were not to blame. I told him the way I look 
at it. A man's actions are governed by his ideals. No 
matter how sweet and gentle his nature may be ; if he 
be once thoroughly imbued with the importance of forcing 



106 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

Teutonic supremacy, and Teutonic Kultur on the rest of 
the world, for the world's own good ; and if he thor- 
oughly believes that the end justifies the means ; then, the 
finest qualities in his nature will be perverted to the service 
of those ideals. Until you can convert him, there is noth- 
ing you can do, when he becomes a menace to the rest 
of the freedom-loving world, but to exterminate him. 

Hatred of the individual is indeed not a good thing. 
But when men adopt hateful ideals, one must deal with 
them as the expression of their ideals. I feel that one of 
the dangers confronting America and England is their 
readiness, when the fight is over, to make up and shake 
hands. This is the result, in part, of their temperament, 
and in part of their training in sport, a training of which 
the German knows nothing. Bismarck, himself, who surely 
knew the German people, contemptuously dubbed them a 
nation of waiters. He counted on their qualities of sheep- 
like obedience to authority. And so on, and so on. I 
talked for quite a while ; I hope I made an impression. 
Many of the men talk as he does. I see his point of 
view. It is a point of view that requires very clear 
thinking in dealing with it, or it will lead to just what 
the Germans are trving to get. 



Andernach, June 5. — I heard some soldiers the other 
day speaking of the Germans and discussing the present 
situation. One lieutenant was saying that when they first 
came into Germany they couldn't understand why every- 
one was so pleasant, and treated the Americans like long- 
lost friends. But while many of the soldiers for a time 
felt that they liked them pretty well, they are rapidly 
changing their minds. The Germans are now unmasking 
themselves. They had probably heard wild tales of these 
terrible American fighters ; and as in their minds, fine 
fighting goes with cruelty, they probably looked forward 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 107 

to being scalped. So they tried to placate the foe. When 
they found the Americans easy-going and kindly, I sup- 
pose they got a contempt for them. Any way, they began 
to take advantage of them. * * * Musically I am not 
doing as much now, in this religious and leave-area work, 
as I did when I was in the entertainment department. But 
I certainly am having the "time of my young life," and, 
in a way, I feel that I am coming into my own. * * * 
Incidentally, I have the chance, any time I wish, to ride 
a lovely horse. But I have no proper costume, and so 
I do not ride. It makes me feel quite badly when I see 
these beautiful creatures going by. 

In answer to your question, a shave-tail is a second 
lieutenant ; and from the Sam Browne belt he wears, any 
ofificer is called a Sam Browne. * * * ^t our regular 
dance last evening, I had two partners who said I was 
the first Y girl they had danced with for eighteen months. 
And sometimes a man tells you he hasn't even talked with 
an American woman for eighteen months. * * * Yes- 
terday, as I was selling ice cream, there was a perfect 
invasion of the hut by the British. A leave boat had come 
in, and the place was filled with them, including many 
Scotchmen in their kilties. It was rather interesting. For 
the last two or three Sunday evenings they have danced 
here at the hut. It does not accord with my ideas, and 
I don't do it. * * * I know a nice corporal, who has 
character, brains and common sense, and should make 
something of himself. His views on life and men are as 
fine as anyone could wish to hear. He is only twenty, 
but he has made his own way for years, both parents being 
dead. When he was sixteen, he drank to excess, but now 
he is as sober as a judge. 

Yesterday I had a lovely trip to Cologne. The weather 
continues to be exactly like heaven, and we had the sun 
behind us. But we were thickly covered with dust. Our 



108 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

own mothers wouldn't have known us. These Macadam 
roads have a great deal of heavy traffic, and no hint of 
oil. Personally, while I do not enjoy the dust, per se, I 
would much rather have a ride, with dust, than no 
ride, and no dust, and I was very happy. The scenery is 
suggestive of our Columbia River Highway, but only sug- 
gestive. It is futile to compare the Rhine and the Co- 
lumbia. But it was a lovely ride, anyway, of about one 
hundred miles. We were gone seven hours. We reached 
Cologne about noon, and then came the trouble of getting 
something to eat. It is not as simple as it is here in 
Andernach. Cologne is under the British, and is on ra- 
tions. We were not allowed at the officers' club, as we 
were not officers ; nor in the hotel for enlisted men, as 
we were not enlisted men. Just as we were beginning to 
despair, we found the British Y. M. C. A., and they gave 
us a very good meal, free of charge, which was very nice 
of them. The five soldiers did not fare so well as we 
three Y people. They ate at the hotel for enlisted men, 
and got very little. So at three they started in to find 
something else, and got lost. They came back about five, 
and still hadn't found anything. I felt very sorry for our 
driver. He had had nothing since five-thirty a. m., and 
then only three pancakes. And coming back, the dust ! 
However, I wouldn't have missed it. It was a delightful 
experience. I always did say I never had auto rides 
enough. I guess I am a natural born autoist. 

At our last dance there was a pathetic figure of a 
"Sam Browne," standing on the edge of the crowd, look- 
ing very boyish and longing, so anxious to dance that 
his feet could not keep still. He complained that the of- 
ficers got no chance, there were so many privates. 

I am certainly enjoying our mess. It is for five women ; 
and as there are now only four of us, we take turns 
in having a guest. Our waitress is a Belgian woman, once 



A «'Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 109 

a professional dancer. She is now reduced to this posi- 
tion. The war has brought her great hardships. I will 
say for her that she is absolutely devoted to us, and 
would give us her head if we wanted it. She made 
herself very ill recently by eating the five portions of 
cucumbers that had been left on the table after our meal ; 
and then drinking a quantity of water. Even yet, she has 
not learned moderation, after her starvation experience. 
:i= :i= * Qj^ij. German cook is a very nervous man, and 
she has her trials with hiiu. He has taken cooking prizes 
at expositions, and all through the war he cooked for 
4000 men. He responds to human treatment, just the 
same. He told one of the servants I was a delightful lady 
— just because I praised his cake. 

It seems to me that in everything I have been ex- 
ceedingly fortunate. Take my billet for example. Some 
of the girls have been put into houses where the landlords 
were very unfriendly, and in one or two cases the girls 
were rather nervous about it. During the recent move- 
ment of troops, a group of Y women were put into a 
hotel in the center of town, where they had much un- 
pleasantness from a drunken German, resulting in a 
nervous shock to them. I, on the other hand, am with 
pleasant and obliging people, away off on the edge of 
town, absolutely remote from drunken brawls, and tucked 
away in the corner as I am, I feel absolutely safe. Esp€- 
cially as khaki is always in evidence, no matter how re- 
mote the side street may be. Indeed, as time goes on, 
I consider myself more and more fortunate in my billet. 
Last evening, when I came home, I had a little conver- 
sation with my landlady and her mother. She was show- 
ing me many interesting heirlooms : such as a piece of 
pottery four hundred years old ; a set of furniture, made 
from oaks planted by her great-grandfather, as well as 
a metal-trimmed chest that looked like a museum piece. 



110 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

They are evidently people of refinement. Recently, when 
I was getting ready to appear before General Pershing, I 
got some hot irons to press out my things, and my land- 
lady helped me there in the kitchen, and we were as 
friendly as could be. 

I have just met an interesting chap, a Dane by birth 
and a painter by profession. He expects to live in Paris 
after the war. He is a splendid physical specimen, has a 
very fine face ; and made a bee line for the piano when 
he heard me playing Chopin's ballade in A flat. He has 
a New York friend (whom he expects to become a famous 
man) who plays this ballade. He soon asked for Grieg. 
He is one of a great many I have met lately who think 
the peace terms too hard on Germany. I always give 
them my little talk. I hope I convince them. I usually 
get them to agree with me. Perhaps they do so out of 
politeness — at any rate, I show them another point of view. 
* * * I am enjoying my present life and am trying 
to make the most of it, for it will never happen again. 
I am having a grand and glorious time. 

On our recent trip to Cologne, I had a chance to go 
with Dr. F. in a Liberty truck. I climbed up on the 
front seat with the driver, and we set ofif. Dr. F. is 
nervous in a machine. He knows nothing about one, and 
as soon as I got in he warned me against touching the 
gear shift. Later on, the driver killed his engine; then 
he cranked it : and when it began to race, I adjusted the 
spark and hand throttle before the driver could get up 
there. Not knowing just how far down the latter should 
go, when the car was idling, I very nearly killed it again ; 
and before I got it to the proper place, I had been play- 
ing quite a little tune. The driver, in the meantime, when 
he found I could manage that end, got under the hood, 
and began some carburetor adjustments, telling me mean- 
while what to do up above. I could see that Dr. F. was 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 111 

worried. I don't know whether he thought I would make 
a mistake, and start the thing, and run into the car ahead, 
or whether he thought I would do something to make 
the whole thing blow up. What he said, however, was 
harmless. "I see you can play on that thing, too."* But 
enough of mechanics. 

Yesterday was the glorious Fourth. In the morning 
there were athletic features ; in the afternoon a big game 
of baseball, and in the evening fire-works. There were 
war-rockets and stars, and it was a beautiful sight. A 
steady white fire on the banks of the Rhine lighted up 
the whole region, and then with a great rush of sound 
the huge rockets would leap into the sky, and, trembling 
on the apex of their flight, would unfurl a row of stars 
which would swing back and forth ; the red and green 
stars would go up and then would fall into the water. 
Parachutes with balls of white fire would zig-zag slowly 
down and would end their lives in the waters of the Rhine. 
It was a still evening, and the river was like a ribbon of 
glass, reflecting the lights in long paths. On both sides 
of the river, the Second and Third Divisions were vying 
with each other to see which could produce the most 
spectacular display. We had the glory of these fire-works, 
which had been made to aid in Germany's destruction, and 
were now shot oflf in the heart of the country by a con- 
quering army. A friend explained to me what each 
rocket meant — the signals for going over the top, ad- 
vancing the barrage, and so on. I think that many of 
the soldiers did not enjoy the performance very much, 
as it brought back so vividly the experiences of a year 
ago. These rockets, snufifed out in the German river, 
doubtless recalled the time, a year before, when the flare 
in the sky had not been meant to entertain, and had 
presaged the death of many of their comrades. 



♦Here foHows much technical talk of the machine. — H. M. T. 



112 A <'Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

I come to the hut about half-past eight in the morning, 
and practice an hour, before any of the girls arrive. There 
are a few soldiers, but I pay no attention to them. It 
is very lovely, working here in the early morning. As 
I sit at the piano, looking out over the Rhine, I see the 
traffic of both the distant railroad and the river, going 
up and down ; there are the terraced vineyards on the 
farther bank, with the sun shining on the vines ; and al- 
ways the river, flowing swiftly to the sea. It is an ad- 
vantage to get up early in the morning. 



July 15. — The other evening, when I was in Coblenz. 
an amusing thing happened. First of all, a little ex- 
planation is due about the feeling between the Second 
and Third Divisions. They were both in the Chateau- 
Thierry fight, and the Second claim that the tide was 
turned by their marines. The Third contend that the 
marines were not in it at all, and that it was the Third 
that did the business. Naturally, they love each other as 
Seattle and Portland do, or St. Paul and Minneapolis. 
You can't get either one to say a single good word for 
the other. So, when our party were taken up to Fort 
Ehrenbreitstein, which is manned with Second Divisioners, 
many comments were made by the officers with whom we 
messed that evening, on my affiliation with the Third 
Division ; a fact that could easily be seen from the 
insignia sewed on my shoulder. I did not say much, 
and answered their banter good naturedly, but without 
admitting any inferiority of the Third Division. After 
mess, the chaplain took us in tow, and we went to the 
big Y hut. It is outside the fortress gate, and the meet- 
ing was to begin at six-thirty. I only wish I could have 
seen more of the fortress itself, a wonderfully interesting 
place. The view out over the Rhine was wonderful. As 
to the audience, however, it was entirely missing. So 



A «'Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 113 

while the others talked for half an hour, I practiced. At 
7 o'clock we found out why there was no audience. The 
soldiers had to have passes to get out of the fort, and 
into the hut ; and the chaplain and the other officers 
had, among them, forgotten all about issuing the passes. 
Naturally, none of the boys turned up at vesper services. 
The chaplain was horribly chagrined. As he put us into 
our auto, he said : "Now, I know this is too good a 
story to keep. I know you will tell it. But please don't 

tell what the chaplain's name was, or that it was the 

artillery" (I have forgotten the number). I looked him 
in the eye and said, "No, all I shall say is that it hap- 
pened to me in the Second Division." I wish you could 
have seen that man's face ! 



July 18. — On Wednesday I went out to a beautiful 
place called Maria Laach. The convent there was built 
about the year twelve hundred. We saw the chapel and 
the lovely surroundings, with their old-world gardens. 
The lake is surrounded by wooded hills. 

I was interested in the wild flowers along the route, 
among the rest various kinds of blue bells ; and fire weed, 
like ours at home, only smaller. In some very lovely gar- 
dens I have seen here in Andernach, along with the tiger 
lilies, larkspur, fox-glove and ferns, is this same fire- 
weed, grown big under cultivation. And on the way to 
Maria Laach we also saw fields of beautiful poppies. I 
suppose the men of this army will never see poppies again 
without feeling something sinister in their scarlet splendor, 
and thinking of them as they grew in Flanders fields. 

The other day, when we Y girls gave away two thou- 
sand liters of ice cream at the Division track-meet, I did 
not enjoy it wildly, and got very tired. Then I had a 
nice rest by riding for twenty minutes in a fine car with 



114 A "Y" GIRLOVERSEAS 

my First Division friend from Montabaiir, who used to 
drive me in a Ford. 

You would never think that a Belgian would marry 
a German, but our Belgian gardener did. He had been 
a prisoner in a German camp for four years, and this 
girl had been very kind to him there. When he re- 
turned to his home and found his wife and children dead, 
he straightway married the girl, though he had to go to 
Holland to do it ; and now he is in trouble, because he 
can't get his wife into Belgium. Of such stuff are some 
marriages made ! 



July 20. — Dr. F. has come back from Paris, where 
he watched the big peace parade, in the society of Miss 
Anne Morgan and an English baronet. Our men's march- 
ing was so superb as to bring from the baronet supreme 
praise. In his politely expressed opinion, the x\mericans 
deserved first place in point of excellence, and the English 
of course came next. 

This tale was told me about a French girl. She had 
promised to go out one evening with a young American 
officer. At the last moment, his military duties prevented 
him from keeping his engagement, and he sent a friend 
in his place. When the friend returned, the officer in- 
quired as to whether the place had been easy to find, 
whether he had seen the girl, and whether he had had a 
good time. To the first two questions, the friend curtly 
answered "Yes," and to the last question he curtly ans- 
wered "No." That was all that could be gotten out of 
him. But the girl was less reticent. She said, "Oh, yes, 
your friend came, but he was nothing but a common pri- 
vate, and so of course I couldn't go with him !" Where- 
upon the officer answered, "Let me tell you something 
about that 'common private.' At home he is a multi- 
millionaire, and I am his chauffeur. And if it hadn't 



"Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 115 



been for him, I should never have had my commission. 
He was the one that made it possible for me." Needless 
to add, this French girl never had a second chance to 
go out with that particular private. 



j„ly 25.— Yesterday I was talking; to a youth with a 
round face and exceedingly wide-awake and lively eyes, 
who tells some tall stories of his home. He reports that 
they have an $11,000 racing Lozier car, and that his mother 
once drove him in it fifty-nine miles in forty-five min- 
utes. She also plays a smashing game of pool, as well 
as of tennis; and at a fox-hunt will take fences declined 
by the rest of the field! If a boy must talk fiction, how 
amiable of him to make his mother the heroine! 



August I. — The foundations of the deep — in this case 
the Third Division— are breaking up. My mess has ceased, 
and I now have my meals with some Y men and Y 
detail. It is only for a few days, and while not so 
pleasant, can't be helped. All Y activities except the 
Rhine hut have been closed; all that is now left is what 
little is being done in the First Division, which leaves 
in two weeks, and in Coblenz, with the permanent army 
of occupation. Nearly nine thousand Y people engaged 
in one kind or another of welfare work in France and 
in Germany have been sent home. I am the only woman 
in the hut who has been asked to stay. 



August 3. — One thing I find in running the hut. I 
have come into contact with ofificers more than I used 
to do. Last evening General H. came in with a gorgeous- 
looking creature, who turned out to be a naval captain. 



116 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

The center of the hall was vacant, and we three prome- 
naded the whole length and back again, and stood for a 
while in the middle of the hall. All the soldiers around 
had nothing better to do than to gaze at us. Afterwards 
one of my friends said that he would have given a good 
deal to have had his camera to take a snap shot of me 
as I stood in the middle of the floor. It would have 
been quite a souvenir. Yesterday and today I have been 
talking with officers who came in, whom I used to leave 
to the other girls. General H. was saying last evening 
that I am the only American woman in the entire Third 
Division area. Several have asked me if I was not lone- 
some. I am, indeed, the only Y worker now left in this 
entire area. The last Y men left today. 

I hated to part from the Third Division. And I am 
feeling now much as I did when I left Paris : lonesome 
for friends left behind, wondering as to the future, and 
I hope, as then, standing on the threshold of a much 
bigger experience than any that preceded it. 

The day at the hut when I began reigning in my 
solitary splendor, there was free ice cream, served in big 
cups ; and the capacity of some of those chaps was enor- 
mous ! Helping to dish it out in the kitchen was the youth 
who has beaten me so much at chess, and whose parents 
gave him such conflicting advice about killing Germans. 
He is very l)rainy, with a remarkable social talent, reads 
Dante for recreation, and heretofore I have seen only the 
grown-up side of him. Last evening he told me he had 
eaten seven big plates full, and had then drunk a lot 
of water, and he didn't think a cigarette paper could 

be squeezed between his belt and himself! 

* * * * * 

I am now directing about twenty men and women, and 
it seems that the servants like me. * * * General H. 
come in and made me a moment's visit. His errand con- 



A «<Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 117 

cerned sleeping accommodations for about a dozen sol- 
diers. Threats to burn the hut down, rather than have 
it sold to the Germans, have been made by some of the 
men. The plan was to have soldiers sleep there at night. 

An English woman who has been working with the 
French lately came in, and exclaimed on all that we 
have here. And last week two Y workers, a man and 
a woman who have been working with the First Division, 
frankly said that they were made envious by the beauty 
of the place. In the First Division, they have had so 
little chance ; and the Third, taken altogether, was amaz- 
ingly more fortunate. One hears that same tale from 
other divisions. The Third has so much more than they 
have. 

The other day we had an invasion of the hut by nine 
British officers. They asked for tea, and I got the serv- 
ants to prepare some. While we were waiting, I took 
them all out on the veranda, and talked to them. I say 
that advisedly, because it was I who did the talking. 
The lieutenant colonel and the major were pleasant-faced 
gentlemen, who simply didn't talk, but at least they 
looked friendly. The other seven were good modern 
duplicates of the Sphinx. A nice position for a girl who 
is shy, and no talker ! Here I was, confronted by nine 
rather gorgeous-looking officers sitting around in a ring, 
and studying me with the same impersonal attention a 
scientist would bestow upon a new and loquacious bug. 
I succeeded in talking as well as I ever do (I will say that 
for myself). At last, an American lieutenant came and 
rescued me. 

^ ^ "P ^ 'I* 

Telephoning here is a matter not to be gone into 
lightly, but to be well-considered first, and then under- 
taken with fasting and prayer. Today I tried to get 
Coblenz — it took me fortv-five minutes. And that isn't 



118 A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 

all ; you have to carry around in your head the most 
weird names for the different lines. Coblenz, for instance, 
is Doodlebug. And as we are on an R circuit, every 
line, in this area begins with R. Andernach is Raleigh ; 
there are Rattle-snake and Reptile — I can't begin to re- 
member them all. But I do remember one day being 
clear down the hall, and hearing a voice calling in a 
frenzied fashion, "Give me Relief!" When I get home, 
no matter how bad the service may be, I shall think of 
Andernach, and be thankful for the blessings I have. 

I have lately had two visits from the captain of the 
8th Infantry of the regular army, who is now in com- 
mand of this area. As long as the 8th Infantry is here, 
which will probably be about two months, he wants the 
hut kept open. In case I stay, he would have me bil- 
leted in the same house with himself and his wife, a 
very lovely villa near the hut, with marble floors, etc. 
He seems to feel extremely friendly to the Y, which 
would make it very delightful for me. I don't believe, 
however, that I shall stay that long. 

Andernach, the leave-area center for about twenty-five 
thousand men, has had many more welfare activities 
than any other place in the division area. The following 
have been activities of the Y. The big Rhine hut had 
a force of ten Y women ; and the casino, with a "wet 
canteen," had three women and a Y man. At this casino 
they sold chocolate and doughnuts and ice-cream, and they 
had a hall where meetings were sometimes held, and 
where tables were furnished with free writing materials. 
Third, there was a library with two large rooms, a good 
collection of books, and a woman in charge. This was 
managed jointly by the Y. M. C. A. and the A. L. A. 
More free writing materials were furnished here. The 
library was decorated most tastefully, and was a de- 
lightful place to go to, for those who wanted quiet. 



A "Y" GIRL OVERSEAS 119 

Fourth, there was also a little place where athletic goods 
were kept and loaned to the boys — tennis rackets, balls 
and shoes ; boxing-gloves, baseballs, mits and bats ; all 
the equipment for basket-ball, soccer and football; and 
they even had an enormous push-ball, perhaps eight feet 
.high, which men shoved around on horse-back. Fifth, 
there was the theater in the old hangar, where shows 
were given almost every night. There was another place 
where moving pictures were to be seen every night. 
Sixth, there was the free mess-hall, where the soldiers on 
leave who presented the tickets which had been given 
them, could get free meals three times a dav. and very 
fair meals they were. I have eaten there, and know. 
My chief trouble, the pre{X)nderance of meat and pota- 
toes, would not l)e likely to strike the average soldier 
as a disadvantage. These stores were furnished bv the 
army, and the Y did the cooking. Then, seventh, for 
those who wanted to live a little better, there was the 
cafeteria, where for very little they could buy an ex- 
tremely good meal. I lived there for a week and enjoyed 
it. Eighth, girls used to go to the hospitals every day, 
and distribute among the patients gay chatter and candy 
and cigarettes. Xinth, and last, every other day free ex- 
cursion boats furnished by the army carried the bovs up 
and down the RJiine. and two Y girls were on board, 
whose task was simply to "float" among the soldiers. 



Aug. 12. — I am leaving Andernach tomorrow for good. 
The place is now filling up with Algerians, in khaki- ^ 
colored uniforms and red fezzes. It has ceased to be a 
desirable field of work for an American woman. Work 
in another ])lace has been ofifered me, but I feel that I 
am not fresh enough to undertake it. 



Aug. 22. — Near Trez-Hir. France. I wish vou could 



120 A "Y"GIRL OVERSEAS 

see this beautiful place where I am waiting for my boat. 
It is not Trez-Hir, but is only about a mile and a half 
away ; and while the view is not quite so beautiful, it 
is still a lovely place. Of course, I want to get home 
as quickly as I can. But since I know that there is 
absolutely nothing I can do to hurry the march of events, 
I can be very philosophic about the waiting, and very 
joyful that I can wait in so beautiful a spot. I have 
had another . leave coming to me for some time, and I 
am taking part of it, at least, just where I should have 
chosen. 

Trez-Hir was given up by the Y about a week ago. 
They took this hotel, which I had passed various times 
on my walks, and from the standpoint of hotel accom- 
modations, it is more comfortable. I have only one room- 
mate, a delightful southern lady, who is unobtrusive, neat, 
and believes in keeping to her half of the room. I con- 
sider myself particularly lucky, especially as there are 
four girls here with dogs. One of the girls I was talking 
to has three room-mates with two dogs. 

I am at present writing in the sun, looking out to 
sea. The ocean is perfectly smooth and blue ; innumerable 
small fishing-boats dot its surface, one of the larger ones 
having beautiful wliite sails, with the top sail a rusty red, 
a most beautiful effect. Occasionally a large steamer 
plows across the horizon. 

Yesterday and today, the weather has been fine, not 
hot, but sunny. I am sitting in the sun, with yellow- 
jackets buzzing harmlessly about me. I was never hurt 
by one yet. I am watching the Brittany peasants with 
their two-wheeled carts, to which the horses are hitched 
tandem. The tide is low, and they are gathering sea- 
weed. I am getting the most delightful odor of sea- 
weed and salt-water. 

Nobody knows how delighted I shall be to get home. 



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